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THE 


BIBLE  VERIFIED 


BY   THE         , 

REV.  ANDREW  W.  ARCHIBALD. 


WITH    AN 

INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

By  PROF.  RANSOM  B.  WELCH,  D.  D.,  LL.D., 

Of  Auburn  Theological  Seminary. 


PHILADELPHIA! 

PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION 
AND  SABBATH-SCHOOL  WORK, 

1334  CHESTNUT  STREET. 


COPYRIGHT,   1890,  BY 

THE  TRUSTEES  OF  THE 

PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD   OF  PUBLICATION 
AND  SABBATH-SCHOOL   WORK. 


All  Rights  Reserved. 


Westcott  &  Thomson, 
Slereotypers  and  Electrolypers,  Philada. 


TO  HIS  CHILDREN, 
WARREN,  KENNETH  AND   CECIL, 

THIS  VOLUME  IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED 

BY  THE   AUTHOR. 


PREFACE  TO  SECOND  EDITION. 


The  Author  wishes  to  express  his  gratification  at  the 
generous  reception  which  has  been  given  to  his  unam- 
bitious literary  and  religious  venture — a  reception  so  cor- 
dial that,  within  six  weeks  of  the  issue  of  the  first  edition, 
he  is  informed  of  the  need  of  a  second.  For  this  he  adds, 
upon  the  Bible  and  the  Monuments,  two  chapters,  which 
have  aimed  at  popularizing  archaeological  lore,  which 
have  cost  him  no  little  labor,  but  which  in  their  materials 
have  been  to  him  of  absorbing  and  even  romantic  interest, 
and  which  he  feels  will  give  completeness  to  the  volume. 

A.  W.  A. 


PREFACE. 


The  following  pages  were  not  originally  pre- 
pared with  any  thought  of  publication.  They  are 
sermons  that  have  been  preached  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  a  busy  pastorate.  They  were  not  a  set 
series  of  discourses  even.  In  these  days  of  biblical 
criticism  questions  as  to  the  authority  of  the  Script- 
ures have  arisen  from  time  to  time.  To  answer 
these  inquiries,  which  have  made  their  way  into 
the  popular  mind,  a  sermon  would  be  preached 
along  one  line,  and  in  the  course  of  time  another 
along  a  different  line.  So  doubtful  was  the  author 
about  launching  a  volume  upon  the  sea  of  public 
thought  that  he  concluded  to  offer  for  publication 
what  he  has  written  only  on  the  condition  of  a  fa- 
vorable judgment  and  of  encouragement  from  two 
of  his  former  highly-esteemed  instructors  —  Prof. 
R.  B.  Welch,  D.  D.,  LL.D.,  formerly  of  Union 
College  (later  of  Auburn  Theological    Seminary), 


6  PREFACE. 

and  Prof.  G.  E.  Day,  D.  D.,  of  the  Yale  Divinity 
School  and  one  of  the  American  Old-Testament 
Committee  in  the  preparation  of  the  Revised  Ver- 
sion of  the  Scriptures. 

The  author  hopes  that  both  clergy  and  laity  may 
find  the  book  to  be  stimulating  and  helpful,  and 
that  they  may  discover  no  glaring  mistakes  in 
statements  of  fact  or  in  expressions  of  opinion. 
Where  there  is  room  for  different  conclusions  he 
has  simply  stated  his  own,  without  a  nice  balancing 
of  arguments  pro  and  con.  which  would  be  unsuit- 
able for  the  pulpit. 

He  frankly  confesses  to  leaning  toward  the  con- 
servative side  of  the  issues  raised  by  the  Higher 
Criticism.  In  the  fulfillment  of  prophecy  he  cannot 
speak  disparagingly,  as  one  eminent  Christian  scholar 
does,  of  dwelling  upon  "  remarkable  minute  corre- 
spondences between  old-time  prognostications  and 
new-time  events."  He  is  ready  to  be  as  old-fash- 
ioned as  the  New-Testament  writers,  who  did  see  in 
the  minutiae  of  history  secondary,  if  not  primary, 
fulfillment  of  previous  predictions.  Some  examples 
may  be  mentioned.  Prediction  in  Zechariah  :  "  Be- 
hold, thy  King  cometh  unto  thee :  .  .  .  lowly, 
and  riding  upon  an  ass,  even  upon  a  colt  the  foal 
of  an  ass  "  ;  corresponding  fact  to  which  John  calls 


PREFACE.  7 

attention  :  "  And  Jesus,  having  found  a  young  ass, 
sat  thereon."  Prediction  in  Isaiah  :  "  He  opened 
not  his  mouth  "  ;  fact  in  Matthew  :  "  And  he  gave 
him  no  answer,  not  even  to  one  word."  Prediction 
in  the  Psalms  :  "  In  my  thirst  they  gave  me  vine- 
gar to  drink " ;  fact  in  Matthew  :  "  One  of  them 
ran,  and  took  a  sponge,  and  filled  it  with  vinegar, 
and  put  it  on  a  reed,  and  gave  him  to  drink." 
Prediction  in  the  Psalms:  "They  part  my  gar- 
ments among  them,  and  upon  my  vesture  do  they 
cast  lots";  fact  in  John:  "  The  soldiers  therefore, 
when  they  had  crucified  Jesus,  took  his  garments, 
and  made  four  parts,  to  every  soldier  a  part;  and 
also  the  coat:  now  the  coat  was  without  seam, 
woven  from  the  top  throughout.  They  said  there- 
fore one  to  another,  Let  us  not  rend  it,  but  cast  lots 
for  it,  whose  it  shall  be."  Prediction  in  Exodus 
regarding  the  paschal  lamb :  "  Neither  shall  ye 
break  a  bone  thereof"  ;  fact  in  John  regarding  the 
Lamb  of  God  :  "  When  they  came  to  Jesus,  they 
brake  not  his  legs."  Prediction  in  Zechariah : 
"  They  shall  look  unto  me  whom  they  have 
pierced  "  ;  fact  in  John  :  "  Howbeit  one  of  the  sol- 
diers with  a  spear  pierced  his  side."  These  illus- 
trations— and  they  might  be  multiplied — are  suffi- 
cient to  justify  not  only  the  tracing  of  great  lines 


8  PREFACE. 

of  prophecy,   but  also  the  verifying  in  detail  of 
predictions. 

No  claim  is  made  to  originality.  The  writer  is 
indebted  to  the  standard  authorities  along  the  va- 
rious lines  of  his  research.  Professor  Welch  has 
kindly  written  an  Introductory  Note,  for  which  the 
Author  is  grateful.  The  writer  also  desires  to  say 
how  he  has  been  reassured  in  a  sometimes  wavering 
purpose  by  private  letters  (quoted  by  permission) 
from  Professor  Day,  who  in  the  reading  of  the 
manuscript  was  "increasingly  interested"  as  he 
proceeded,  who  bore  testimony  to  the  "  fresh  and 
popular  treatment  given  to  the  interesting  subjects 
discussed,"  and  who  recognized  in  the  discourses 
"  grasp  of  thought  and  fullness  of  illustration  and 
balance  of  judgment." 

The  Author  would  simply  add  that  the  volume 
includes  two  sermons  written  after  he  had  submitted 
his  manuscript  to  his  scholarly  critics,  and,  not 
wishing  to  trouble  them  further,  he  ventures  to 
insert  without  their  critical  supervision  the  dis- 
courses on  "Formidable  Objections  to  the  Bible" 
and  "  Biblical  Signs  preceding  the  Destruction  of 
Jerusalem." 

A.  W.  A. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

By  Professor  RANSOM  B.  WELCH. 


It  gives  me  pleasure  to  say  that  when  a  professor 
in  college  I  knew  the  author  of  these  sermons  as  a 
student.  He  was  diligent,  accurate,  trustworthy; 
waiting  ever  to  report  until  he  had  found ;  then 
reporting  unostentatiously,  but  truthfully  and  sym- 
pathetically, what  he  had  found. 

This  gave  assurance  that  if  he  ever  ventured 
into  authorship  he  would  be  an  honest  writer,  aim- 
ing to  furnish  real  information,  striving  earnestly  to 
convince  others  because  of  his  own  thorough  con- 
viction, patiently  guiding  and  lovingly  helping 
others  because  he  himself  by  patience  and  hope 
had  sought  and  found. 

His  is  a  judicial  rather  than  a  partisan  spirit, 
loyal  to  the  truth,  yet  liberal  toward  honest  doubt 
and  sincere  search — the  more  tolerant  because  the 
more   truthful. 

9 


10  INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 

The  general  subject  of  the  book  is  important. 
The  particular  topics  are  timely.  The  treatment  is 
vigorous  and  truthful.  The  style  is  clear,  compact 
and  in  keeping  with  the  plan  and  purpose  of  the 
sermons.  The  book  is  never  dull,  while  it  is 
always  instructive,  and  at  times  especially  impress- 
ive and  quickening.  It  mainly  pursues  the  historic 
method,  which,  if  not  the  exclusive,  is  the  most 
ready  and  effective,  method  for  such  a  course  of  ser- 
mons. The  author  does  not  claim  to  be  original, 
but  wisely  avails  himself  of  facts  both  recent  and 
remote  in  almost  every  field  of  investigation. 
These  facts  are  not  only  informing,  but  they 
serve  also  the  twofold  purpose  of  argumentation 
and  illustration,  stimulating  the  attention  while 
they  convince  the  judgment. 

The  book  cannot  fail  to  reflect  credit  upon  the 
author  and  light  upon  the  reader. 

We  heartily  commend  it  to  all  who  would  the 
better  understand  some  of  the  vital  questions  of 
these  stirring  times — who  would  search  the  Script- 
ures, especially  to  seek  and  find  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus. 

Eansom  B.  Welch. 

Aububn  Theo.  Seminary. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY  NOTE,  By  Prof.  R.  B.  Welch  .    .        9 


CHAPTER  I. 
The  Canon  ;  or,  What  Constitutes  the  Bible?  .   .      13 

CHAPTER  II. 
The  Bible  in  Manuscript 25 

CHAPTER  III. 
The  Bible  in  English 39 

CHAPTER   IV. 
The  Inspiration  of  the  Bible 52 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Bible  and  the  Miraculous 65 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Formidable  Objections  to  the  Bible 79 

CHAPTER   VII. 

Incidental  Confirmations  of  the  Bible 91 

11 


12  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PAGE 

The  Bible  and  Science  ;  or,  the  Creative  Week  .    108 

CHAPTER  IX. 
The  Bible  and  the  Mummies  of  the  Pharaohs    .    121 

CHAPTER   X. 
Elevating  Influence  of  the  Bible 136 

CHAPTER    XI. 
The  Bible  and  the  Golden  City  of  Babylon    .    .    151 

CHAPTER  XII. 
The  Bible  and  the  Commercial  City  of  Tyre  .    .    164 

CHAPTER   XIII. 
Biblical  Signs  Preceding  the  Destruction  of  Je- 
rusalem         ...    179 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
The  Bible  and  the  Destruction  of  Jerusalem  .    .    190 

CHAPTER  XV. 
The  Bible  and  the  Peculiar  Jews 202 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
The  Bible  and  the  Monuments — Egypt  and  Assyria.  216 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
The  Bible  and  the  Monuments — Babylonia  and 
Palestine 236 


THE  BIBLE  VERIFIED. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  CANON;  OB,    WHAT  CONSTITUTES  THE 
BIBLE? 

"  Ye  search  the  Scriptures,  because  ye  think  that  in  them  ye 
have  eternal  life ;  and  these  are  they  which  bear  witness  of 
Me."— John  5  :  39. 

AVERY  natural  inquiry  in  these  days,  when 
we  are  searching  for  the  foundations  of  things, 
is,  What  exactly  is  the  Bible  ?  What  books  con- 
stitute the  Scriptures?  "  These  are  they,"  says  our 
text,  indicating  a  definite  number. 

1.  The  reference,  of  course,  is  simply  to  the  Old 
Testament,  aud  the  contents  of  this  have  been  fixed 
for  ages  with  tolerable  certainty.  While  the  books 
from  Genesis  to  Malachi  were  composed  at  different 
points  of  a  period  covering  more  than  a  thousand 
years,  they  seem  to  have  been  gathered  into  one 
sacred  collection  some  four  hundred  years  before 
the  Christian  era.  They  were  arranged  under 
three  great  divisions,  which  Christ  once  called  the 
Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the  Psalms.     This  meant 

13 


14  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

something  specific,  for  we  find  the  same  threefold 
division  used  by  the  son  of  Sirach  at  least  130  B.  a, 
and  by  Philo,  who  was  born  only  a  few  years 
before  Christ,  and  by  Josephus,  who  was  born 
37  A.  D.  It  was  as  if  different  persons  to-da}' 
should  refer  to  the  three  volumes  of  Motley's  Dutch 
Republic.  It  would  prove  that  such  a  work  existed 
and  in  that  form.  Both  Philo  and  Josephus  quote 
from  each  of  the  three  great  divisions  and  from 
most  of  the  individual  books,  giving  us  the  same 
evidence  for  the  genuineness  of  the  Old  Testament 
as  we  would  have  for  Motley's  Dutch  Republic  if 
different  authors  should  quote  from  each  volume 
and  from  nearly  every  separate  chapter. 

Josephus  even  gives  the  precise  number  of  books 
comprised  in  the  whole — "  only  twenty  two,"  he 
says.  But  that  contradicts  the  number  at  present 
received,  does  it  not?  We  count  thirty-nine.  The 
variation  is  easily  explained.  Originally  there  was 
not  the  arbitrary  division  into  First  and  Second 
of  Chronicles,  First  and  Second  of  Kings,  First  and 
Second  of  Samuel.  These  double  books  were  each 
considered  one,  as  they  properly  are.  In  like 
manner,  the  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah  were  joined 
to  his  prophecy,  Ruth  was  attached  to  Judges  (of 
which  it  is  a  continuation),  Ezra  and  Nehemiah 
were  reckoned  as  one  because  they  treated  of  the 
same  period,  and  the  twelve  Minor  Prophets  natu- 
rally fell  into  one  class.  With  a  grouping  of  this 
kind  we  can  easily  get  the  "  only  twenty-two  books  " 


THE  CANON.  15 

in  the  Old  Testament,  and  Josephus  was  particular 
about  having  it  twenty-two,  that  it  might  conform 
to  the  number  of  letters  in  the  Hebrew  alphabet. 
When,  then,  the  text  speaks  of  the  Scriptures  as 
"  these  are  they,"  it  refers  to  exactly  the  same 
books,  according  to  these  ancient  witnesses,  as  are 
now  in  our  possession. 

Again,  all  down  the  ages  of  the  Christian  era 
our  present  books  are  frequently  named,  giving  us 
a  continuous  line  of  testimony.  It  should  also  be 
remembered  that  the  Old-Testament  Scriptures  for 
nineteen  centuries  have  been  held  in  sacred  trust 
by  two  great  religious  parties  of  antagonistic  beliefs, 
the  Jews  and  Christians.  It  is  as  though,  to  use 
the  illustration  of  another,  they  were  guarding 
"  the  same  casket  of  jewels/'  and  a  single  gem 
could  not  have  been  removed  without  detection  by 
the  other.  It  is  the  strongest  kind  of  evidence, 
when  opposing  parties  thus  agree,  that  each  has 
been  honest  in  neither  adding  to  nor  subtracting 
from  the  holy  oracles,  for  the  Hebrew  Bible  of  the 
Jew  is  the  Old  Testament  of  the  Christian. 

But  how  about  the  Apocrypha?  The  Roman 
Catholics,  you  are  aware,  at  the  Council  of  Trent 
in  1546  formally  adopted  it  as  a  part  of  the  Bible. 
But  Josephus  expressly  says  that  it  was  not  "  of 
the  like  authority  "  with  the  Scriptures,  and  Philo 
does  not  refer  to  it  authoritatively  as  he  does  to  the 
Old  Testament,  and  it  is  not  endorsed  by  New- 
Testament    references,   as    the   recognized   Jewish 


16  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

Canon  was,  except  that  Jude  endorses  a  sentiment 
from  the  apocryphal  book  of  Enoch,  much  as  Paul 
adopted  a  sentiment  of  a  Greek  poet  in  the  sermon 
to  the  Athenians.  How,  then,  did  the  Apocrypha 
ever  become  associated  with  the  Old  Testament? 
The  explanation  is,  that  the  Jews  of  Alexandria 
had  the  Scriptures  translated  into  Greek,  which 
they  spoke  in  Egypt.  To  this  Greek  or  Septuagint 
version  (which  was  begun  about  280  B.  c.)  other 
Jewish  books,  written  after  the  prophetic  age,  were 
added  from  time  to  time  for  convenient  use  eccle- 
siastically or  because  of  laxer  views  entertained  in 
Egypt  than  in  Palestine.  Now,  since  Greek  came 
into  wider  use  than  any  other  language,  this  Greek 
translation,  with  its  Apocrypha  attached  to  the  Old- 
Testament  Scriptures,  became  the  Bible  with  which 
most  people  were  familiar,  and  by  degrees  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  Old  Testament  and  Apocrypha 
became  effaced.  Thus  all  down  the  centuries  there 
have  been  individuals  who  have  reckoned  the 
Apocrypha  as  inspired,  and  the  Council  of  Trent 
finally  committed  the  Papal  Church  to  that  position. 
Even  Protestants  long  had  a  lingering  feeling  of 
reverence  for  the  Apocrypha,  and  hence  bound  it  in 
with  the  Scriptures,  where  it  should  not  be,  because 
it  is  not  recognized  as  Scripture  by  Josephus,  Philo, 
or  the  New-Testament  writers.  When  Christ  said, 
"  These  are  they,"  he  referred  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment alone  as  existing  in  the  threefold  division  of 
the  Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the  Psalms. 


THE  CANON.  17 

2.  While  we  are  thus  clear  as  to  the  contents  of 
the  Old  Testament,  we  may  not  be  so  sure  as  to 
what  constitutes  the  New,  for  the  great  Teacher 
never  pointed  out  the  New-Testament  books,  since 
they  were  not  written  till  after  his  death.  So  far 
as  the  Old  Testament  was  concerned,  he  only 
endorsed  what  the  general  religious  consensus  had 
decided  beforehand.  The  limits  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment were  fixed  at  least  two  or  three  centuries  be- 
fore he  was  born,  and  that  not  by  any  miraculous 
interposition,  but  by  a  providential  agreement  among 
the  most  pious  and  enlightened  as  to  what  was 
inspired.  That  is  the  way  in  which  the  proper 
contents  of  the  Xew  Testament  have  been  deter- 
mined. It  was  a  matter  of  growth  through  devout 
criticism.  Some  thought  such  a  book  was  inspired, 
and  some  another ;  some  that  this  one  ought  to  be 
rejected,  and  some  that  that  one  ought  to  be ;  and 
so  arguments  were  balanced  until  there  was  a 
general  agreement  among  the  vast  majority  of 
Christians,  the  exceptions  being  rare.  That  is  how 
Ave  got  our  Xew  Testament.  It  was  not  let  down 
in  a  body  from  heaven,  it  was  not  compiled  by  the 
apostles.  Xo  divine  hand  selected  its  different 
books  with  the  utterance,  "  These  are  they."  The 
inspired  Gospels  and  Epistles  did  not  come  to  us 
as  magical  formularies,  but  as  writings  historically 
belonging  to  the  apostolic  age.  There  is  nothing 
mysterious  or  mythical  in  their  origin ;  they  come 
to  us  as  history. 


18  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

Glancing  at  the  first  few  centuries  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,  we  can  see  how  the  New  Testament  was 
formed — not  suddenly  and  miraculously,  but  gradu- 
ally and  naturally.  We  see  it  quoted  again  and 
again  by  writers  of  the  second  and  third  centuries. 
Here  is  Clement  of  Rome,  for  instance,  at  the  end  of 
the  first  century  even  (95  A.  d.),  using  expressions 
found  in  Hebrews,  and  in  writing  to  the  Corin- 
thians he  says  :  "  Take  up  the  Epistle  of  the  blessed 
Paul  the  apostle  ;  what  was  it  that  he  first  wrote  to 
you  .  .  .  ?"  Clement  quotes  from  or  alludes  to 
sixteen  of  the  New-Testament  books.  Ignatius, 
who  suffered  martyrdom  not  far  from  107  A.  D., 
in  addressing  the  Ephesians  speaks  of  a  "  letter " 
to  them  by  "  St.  Paul,  the  sanctified  and  martyred/7 
and  he  has  repeated  references  to  various  New-Tes- 
tament books.  Polycarp,  who  was  burned  at  the 
stake  155  or  167  a.  d.,  and  who,  says  Irenseus,  a 
disciple  of  his,  had  often  talked  "  with  the  apostle 
John  and  with  the  rest  who  had  seen  the  Lord," — 
Polycarp  tells  the  Philippians  to  "  look  diligently  " 
into  what  had  been  written  them  by  the  "  blessed 
and  glorious  Paul  ;"  and  he  shows  a  knowledge  of 
three  of  the  Gospels  and  at  least  of  thirteen  of  the 
Epistles.  The  three,  Clement,  Ignatius,  and  Poly- 
carp, refer  to  all  of  the  New-Testament  books  except 
Second  and  Third  John  and  Jude. 

Justin  Martyr,  who  wrote  about  150  A.  D.,  speaks 
of  a  "  revelation  which  was  made"  to  John,  and  he 
refers  either  directly  or  indirectly  to  nearly  every 


THE  CANON.  19 

New-Testament  book.  Irenseus,  who  flourished 
from  130  to  200  a.  v.,  uses  this  language :  "  Peter 
says  in  his  Epistle"  ;  also,  "  Paul,  when  writing  to 
the  Romans";  and  he  quotes  from  or  alludes  to 
every  book  in  the  New  Testament  except  Philemon 
and  Third  John,  and  there  are  only  fifty-four  chap- 
ters to  which  he  has  no  reference.  Tertullian  (born 
about  150  A.  D.)  quotes  from  all  of  the  New-Testa- 
ment books  except  four,  and  possibly  two.  Clem- 
ent of  Alexandria  (160  to  220  A.  D.)  seems  to  al- 
lude to  all  except  two.  Origen  (born  about  186  a. 
D.)  has  citations  embracing,  it  is  asserted  by  Tre- 
gelles,  two-thirds  of  the  entire  New  Testament.  It 
is  even  claimed  that  an  English  lord  has  found  in  the 
writings  of  the  first  three  centuries  the  whole  New 
Testament  with  the  exception  of  eleven  verses.  To 
such  an  extent  have  the  apostolic  writings  been 
woven  into  the  earliest  literature  of  our  era  that 
their  genuineness  cannot  be  doubted.  They  are  a 
part,  of  history. 

While  they  can  thus  be  clearly  traced  back  to 
the  beginning,  there  was  more  or  less  confusion  at 
first  as  to  their  divine  authority.  The  line  was  not 
at  once  sharply  drawn  separating  them  from  other 
writings  and  making  them  pre-eminently  sacred. 
Irenseus,  for  example,  quoted  as  "Scripture"  the 
"Shepherd"  of  Hennas,  who  probably  wrote  it  a 
little  before  the  middle  of  the  second  century. 
Clement  of  Alexandria  also  considered  it  "divine" 
or  inspired,  as  he  did   the  Epistle  of  the  Roman 


20  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

Clement  (95  A.  d.),  and  as  he  did  that  of  Barnabas, 
whose  date  is  not  later  than  125  A.  D.  These  writ- 
ings are  close  to  the  apostolic  age,  and  they  were 
not  infrequently  read  in  the  churches  as  Scripture. 
They  have  come  down  to  us,  and  are  very  inter- 
esting, but  are  uninspired,  as  we  think.  Their 
inspiration  was  also  denied  by  many  from  the  out- 
set. An  ancient  catalogue  (the  Muratorian  Frag- 
ment, 150  to  170  A.  D.),  while  including  all  of  the 
New  Testament  except  First  and  Second  of  Peter, 
James  and  Hebrews,  rejects  the  "  Shepherd,"  be- 
cause of  its  having  been  composed  "  recently,  in  our 
own  times,  by  Hermas,  while  his  brother  Pins  was 
bishop  of  the  see  of  Rome."  In  the  course  of  time 
it  was  universally  rejected  as  uncanonical,  as  also  were 
the  Epistles  of  Clement  and  Barnabas.  The  same 
fate  awaited  a  work  called  the  "  Apocalypse  of 
Peter,"  which  at  one  time  was  received  in  some 
quarters. 

In  other  words,  here  were  writings  (and  there 
were  still  others)  which  many  used  to  consider 
Scripture,  but  which  eventually  were  dropped  out 
of  the  list  of  sacred  books.  There  was  no  formal 
vote  taken  on  their  rejection,  but  they  gradually 
came  to  be  regarded  by  the  Church  at  large  as 
of  inferior  rank.  There  was  a  sifting  process  going 
on.  Here  would  be  a  letter  claiming  to  be  Paul's, 
there  another  claiming  to  be  Peter's.  What  was 
the  truth?  Each  case  was  discussed,  not  in  an 
ecclesiastical  council,  but  by  the   general  Church. 


THE  CANON.  21 

Some  would  take  the  affirmative,  and  some  the  neg- 
ative, and  thus  one  book  after  another  was  con- 
sidered on  its  merits,  and  in  this  way  the  canon 
was  formed.  It  took  several  centuries  to  come 
with  anything  like  unanimity  to  the  result  which 
is  now  almost  universally  accepted  as  correct. 
This  is  what  might  have  been  expected.  Away 
in  the  East  would  be  an  apostolic  letter  which  the 
people  of  the  West  would  know  nothing  about  for 
fifty  or  a  hundred  years,  and  therefore  results  were 
reached  slowly.  It  was  a  question  as  to  whether 
several  of  the  present  New-Testament  books  should 
be  admitted — a  question  raised  not  by  infidels,  but 
by  Christians. 

The  witnesses  were  perfectly  frank  and  honest. 
Origen  testifies  that  Peter  left  one  Epistle,  "and 
perhaps  a  second,  for  that  is  disputed."  He  also 
says,  "  John  wrote  the  Apocalypse  (Revelation)  and 
an  Epistle  of  very  few  lines ;  and  it  may  be  a  sec- 
ond and  a  third,  since  all  do  not  admit  them  to  be 
genuine."  In  quoting  from  James  and  Jude  he 
adds  that  their  canonioity  was  doubted.  Eusebius 
(born  about  270  A.  D.)  gives  in  his  church  history 
a  list  of  the  Xew-Testament  books.  He  classes  the 
great  majority  as  among  the  "  universally  acknowl- 
edged." As  acknowledged  "  by  the  most "  he 
names  Jude,  James,  Second  Peter,  Second  and  Third 
John.  Revelation,  he  says,  "  some  reject,  while 
others  reckon  it  among  the  books  acknowledged," 
although  in  his  opinion  it  would  be  received  by  all 


22  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

in  "due"  time.  The  candid  weighing  of  evidence 
continued,  until  Athanasius  (365  A.  D.),  in  naming 
the  contents  of  the  canon,  gave  the  exact  books 
which  we  have,  and  only  those.  Eusebius  and 
Athanasius  were  as  near  to  the  apostles  as  we  are 
to  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims.  Jerome,  who 
died  420  A.  D.,  adopted  the  same  list  that  we  now 
have. 

Councils  about  this  time  "  sanctioned  and  rati- 
fied/' as  another  has  said,  "  what  had  already  taken 
place  spontaneously "  and  by  a  "  steady  growth." 
Thus  have  the  limits  of  our  New  Testament  been 
fixed  by  the  general  Christian  consciousness  guided 
by  historical  data.  No  council  decided  the  matter, 
no  heavenly  voice  did,  but  the  result  has  been 
reached  by  patient  comparing  of  views.  There  is 
not  perfect  unanimity  yet  on  the  part  of  the  Chris- 
tian world.  Now  and  then  a  devout  scholar  at 
present  doubts  the  canonical  authority  of  the  Second 
and  Third  of  John  or  the  Second  of  Peter ;  but  even 
if  these  were  rejected  the  system  of  Christianity 
would  not  be  affected,  any  more  than  would  the 
facts  of  our  Civil  War  be  disproved  if  it  should  turn 
out  that  some  historian  did  not  write  certain  two  or 
three  chapters  of  the  work  bearing  his  name.  Still, 
the  almost  universal  sentiment  accepts  all  the  books 
of  the  present  New  Testament,  so  that  we  can  say  of 
them,  as  Christ  said  of  the  Old-Testament  books, 
"These  are  they,"  confident  that  they  constitute  the 
true  word  of  God. 


THE  CANON.  23 

Our  Bible  comes  to  us  not  by  magic  or  witchery 
of  any  kind,  but  through  historical  channels,  and 
if  some  new  apostolic  writing  were  discovered  it 
could  properly  be  admitted  into  the  canon,  not 
because  of  some  miraculous  endorsement  from  the 
sky,  but  on  historical  grounds  ;  and  it  seems  to  be 
historically  probable  that  inspired  Epistles  have 
been  lost.  Paul,  for  instance,  in  1  Cor.  5  :  9  says : 
"  I  wrote  unto  you  in  my  Epistle/9  thus  alluding 
to  a  letter  previously  written  to  the  Corinthians, 
but  this  is  not  now  extant.  And  in  Col.  4 : 
16  he  says,  ""When  this  Epistle  has  been  read 
among  you,  cause  that  it  be  read  also  in  the  church 
of  the  Laodiceans ;  and  that  ye  also  read  the  Epis- 
tle from  Laodicea ;"  but  we  have  no  letter  to  the 
Laodiceans,  unless  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  was, 
as  some  think,  a  circular  letter  designed  also  for  the 
Laodiceans.  Now,  if  these  two  lost  Epistles  of 
the  apostle  to  which  he  refers  should  ever  be  un- 
earthed, they  would  go  through  the  same  course  of 
criticism  as  our  present  Xew-Testament  books  went 
through,  and  if  the  wellnigh  universal  opinion 
should  in  the  end  be  favorable  to  their  authenticity, 
they  could  consistently  be  placed  with  Paul's  other 
letters.  That  is,  our  Bible  has  not  a  mythical,  but 
an  historical,  basis,  and  it  stands  all  the  stronger 
before  the  world  for  that  reason. 

We  do  not  worship  ignorantly ;  ours  is  not 
a  blind  superstition ;  we  believe  on  evidence.  We 
challenge   attention    to   the   origin   of   our   sacred 


24  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

books.  They  were  not  produced,  to  use  a  Pauline 
expression,  "  in  a  corner."  They  have  been  open 
to  all  from  the  begiuniug,  so  that  whosoever  would 
might  read.  Let  us  be  grateful  to  a  kind  Provi- 
dence which  has  so  worked  them  into  the  very 
warp  and  woof  of  history  that  their  credibility 
cannot  be  attacked  without  taking  issue  with  the 
great  fact  of  human  development  itself.  Our  faith 
is  founded  on  the  clear  word  of  God,  and  there  we 
rest  as  on  a  rock,  upon  which  the  tide  of  infidelity 
has  been  beating  in  vain  for  all  the  centuries  that 
are  past.  The  waves  of  skeptical  assault  have 
broken  upon  it  only  to  be  dissipated  into  spray  and 
foam.  The  grand  old  Bible  seems  to  lift  itself  in 
triumph  after  each  shock,  exactly  as  the  rock 
appears  to  emerge  from  the  breakers  when  the 
ocean  tide  has  spent  its  force.1 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  BIBLE  IN  MANUSCRIPT. 

"  The  cloak  that  I  left  at  Troas  with  Carpus,  bring  when 
thou  comest,  and  the  books,  especially  the  parchments." — 
2  Tim.  4 :  13. 

rpHIS  was  a  message  sent  by  Paul  from  his  prison 
-L  at  Home  to  Timothy,  whom  the  apostle  de- 
sired to  come  and  see  him,  and  not  to  forget  to 
fetch  the  books,  and  especially  the  parchments,  left 
behind  with  a  friend  at  Troas.  We  do  not  know 
what  important  works  these  were.  They  may  have 
contained  some  of  his  own  inspired  Epistles,  and 
very  likely  portions  at  least  of  the  Old-Testament 
Scriptures,  for  he  was  a  man  who  read  his  Bible. 
The  sacred  writings  were  to  him  very  precious. 
Perhaps  he  had  been  hurried  off  to  the  Roman  im- 
prisonment without  being  permitted  to  take  his 
books,  among  which,  we  may  be  sure,  would  be 
the  Holy  Scriptures. 

He  could  not  send  out  and  get  a  copy  of  the 
Bible  for  a  trifling  amount,  as  we  can  now.  When 
a  work  is  rare  it  is  expensive.  For  instance,  one 
of  the  very  first  printed  books  was  the  Latin  Bible 
in  1546,  and  a  copy  of  this  edition  not  long  ago 

25 


26  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

sold  in  New  York  for  eight  thousand  dollars,  while 
an  English  earl  paid  for  a  copy  over  sixteen  thou- 
sand dollars.  The  rarity  of  the  work  is  what  con- 
stitutes its  value,  and  in  the  apostolic  age,  before 
the  days  of  printing,  books  were  rare,  as  they  are 
not  now,  when  with  stereotype  plates  they  can  be 
produced  with  ease,  rapidity  aud  economy.  There 
was  then  no  such  thing  as  a  press  to  run  off  large 
editions.  If  a  second  copy  was  wanted,  it  had  to 
be  laboriously  written  out  by  hand. 

There  were  those  who  made  this  copying  a 
distinct  business.  Paul  had  an  amanuensis,  for 
in  Rom.  16  :  22  we  read,  '  I,  Tertius,  who  wrote 
the  Epistle,  salute  you."  The  apostle  only  added 
a  postscript  in  his  own  familiar  chirography,  as  we 
learn  from  1  Cor.  16  :  21 :  "  The  salutation  of  me 
Paul  with  mine  own  hand." 

The  writing  was  done  upon  two  kinds  of  material. 
From  the  reeds  which  grew  along  the  Nile  was 
manufactured  an  article  called  papyrus,  resembling, 
yet  different  from,  our  paper.  Then  the  skins  of 
young  antelopes  and  other  animals  were  dressed 
into  a  fine  sort  of  vellum,  which  was  more  durable, 
and  as  a  consequence  more  costly,  than  the  former. 
When  Paul  sent  for  "the  books,  especially  the 
parchments,"  it  was  literally  for  the  papyrus  rolls 
and  the  vellum  rolls,  and  the  latter  particularly  he 
wanted  because  they  were  worth  more. 

But  he  did  not  wish  either  of  them  to  be  lost. 
He   perhaps  was   afraid   they  might  be  carelessly 


THE  BIBLE  IN  MANUSCRIPT.  27 

thrown  aside  and  destroyed.  If  they  contained  any 
of  his  Epistles,  the  fate  of  these  he  would  naturally 
fear.  He  might  have  heard  the  story  of  Aristotle's 
priceless  works  long  lying  unknown  in  a  cellar, 
where,  fortunately,  after  two  centuries,  they  were 
discovered.  The  apostle's  fears  were  justified,  as 
we  of  modern  times  can  see  better  than  he  did. 
How  much  of  literature  has  been  nearly  lost,  being 
only  providentially — or,  as  we  say,  accidentally — 
recovered  !  The  great  work  of  Quintilian  was 
brought  to  light  in  the  fifteenth  centurv  from  a 
dark  and  filthy  dungeon.  There  have  been  the 
most  romantic  discoveries  of  this  kind.  A  copy 
of  Propertius,  the  Latin  poet,  was  found  stained 
and  crumpled  under  the  casks  of  a  wine-cellar. 
Three  hundred  lines  of  Homer's  Odyssey  were 
taken  from  the  hands  of  a  mummy.  The  original 
manuscript  of  Magna  Charta,  that  great  charter  of 
English  liberty  and  constitutional  freedom  in  gen- 
eral, was  saved  at  the  critical  moment  when  a  tailor 
was  about  to  cut  it  into  patterns.  In  1626  a 
German  in  excavating  for  a  new  house  on  the  site 
of  an  old  one  came  upon  a  well- wrapped  parcel, 
which  proved  to  be  Luther's  Table  Talk,  the  only 
copy  in  existence,  and  a  most  valuable  work  because 
of  the  vivid  picture  which  it  gives  of  the  Reform- 
er's life  and  times. 

These  discoveries  have  been  odd  enough,  but 
there  is  a  still  stranger  way  in  which  literary  treas- 
ures once  lost  have  been  found.     The  vellum,  the 


28  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

parchment,  mentioned  in  the  text,  which  was  pre- 
pared from  skins,  was  so  very  costly  that  it  was 
frequently  cleansed  and  used  again  after  the  manner 
of  a  slate.  The  vegetable  ink  was  as  nearly  obliter- 
ated as  possible,  but  in  the  course  of  time  the  old 
characters  have  reappeared,  very  indistinct  and  yet 
visible.  Once  in  a  while  the  vellum  has  been  cleaned 
a  second  time,  and  a  third  writing  has  been  com- 
mitted to  its  face.  In  either  case  great  skill  is 
required  to  decipher  the  first  characters.  Still,  it 
has  been  done,  and  behold,  a  loug-lost  work  of 
Cicero  and  other  classics  have  thus  been  given  to 
the  world  !  Providence  has  in  this  way  cared  for 
the  Bible. 

In  the  National  Library  at  Paris  there  long  lay 
an  ancient  document  containing  sermons  and  other 
compositions  of  Ephraem  of  Syria,  a  Church  Father 
of  the  fourth  century.  The  preservation  of  his 
writings  was  fortunate,  but  underneath  these  were  at 
last  discovered  traces  of  another  text.  This  was  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Vari- 
ous attempts  were  made  to  decipher  the  old  and 
obscured  characters,  but  without  success  till  about 
fifty  years  ago,  when  by  chemical  appliances  the 
hidden  text  was  made  out  and  published.  It 
proved  to  be  a  manuscript  of  the  larger  portion 
of  the  New  Testament,  dating  back  to  the  fifth 
century.  In  the  twelfth  century  some  copyist  had 
taken  the  leaves  apart,  erased  the  old  text,  and 
written  in  its  place  the  works  of  Ephraem,  while  the 


THE  BIBLE  IN  MANUSCRIPT.  23 

whole  was  bound  together  anew.  In  the  new  vol- 
ume formed  the  leaves  were  all  disarranged,  and 
many  of  them  were  upside  down,  so  far  as  the  first 
writing  was  concerned.  This  made  the  decipherment 
all  the  more  difficult  to  the  scholar  who  undertook 
the  confusing  task ;  who,  however,  succeeded,  and 
the  result  is  one  of  the  best  manuscript  authorities 
we  have  in  biblical  criticism.  "Who  could  have  ever 
imagined  that  a  writing  of  the  fifth  century  would 
thus  be  made  to  reveal  its  secrets  to  the  nineteenth 
century?  Well  may  we  exclaim,  What  hath  God 
wrought !  He  has  evidently  had  all  the  solicitude 
that  Paul  had  for  valuable  parchments.  When  we 
realize  that  many  precious  manuscripts  have  been 
lost,  we  can  appreciate  the  apostle's  anxiety  for 
those  books  and  parchments  at  Troas. 

None  of  the  original  manuscripts  of  the  Bible 
have  been  preserved.  Shall  we  therefore  reject  this 
book?  As  well  might  we  throw  away  the  works 
of  Homer,  who  flourished  from  eight  to  nine  hun- 
dred years  before  Christ,  but  of  whose  writings 
we  have  no  complete  copy  older  than  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  no  fragments  even  older  than  the 
sixth  century — fifteen  centuries  after  the  blind  poet 
died.  Of  the  history  by  Herodotus  there  is  no 
manuscript  extant  earlier  than  the  ninth  century, 
but  this  historian  lived  in  the  fifth  century  before 
the  Christian  era.  There  is  no  copy  of  Plato  pre- 
vious to  the  ninth  century,  and  he  wrote  consider- 
ably more  than  a  thousand  years  before  that.     Less 


30  THE  BIBLE  VERIFIED. 

than  three  hundred  years  intervene  between  the 
oldest  Bible  manuscripts  and  the  apostolic  age. 
What  if  we  do  not  have  the  original  manuscripts 
of  the  inspired  volume?  Must  we  read  every 
author  in  his  own  handwriting  ?  Do  we  have 
Hume  and  Gibbon  and  Bancroft  and  Motley  in 
manuscript  in  our  libraries  ?  No,  but  we  have  no 
doubt  of  possessing  their  works.  It  is  a  matter  of 
history  that  they  have  lived  and  that  they  wrote 
the  books  going  under  their  respective  names.  So 
are  we  sure  of  the  genuineness  of  the  sacred  books. 
We  have  none  of  the  original  manuscripts,  but  all 
through  the  second  and  third  and  successive  cen- 
turies the  New  and  Old  Testaments  are  quoted,  and 
therefore  must  have  been  in  existence.  And  so  far 
as  manuscripts  are  concerned,  we  have  older  ones 
of  the  Scriptures  than  of  any  uninspired  writings. 
The  method  of  determining  their  age  might  here 
be  briefly  indicated.  The  Bible  has  at  different 
times  been  differently  divided,  not  always  into  our 
present  chapters  and  verses.  About  340  A.  D. 
divisions  of  a  certain  order  were  introduced  (a  sys- 
tem perfected  by  Eusebius),  and  about  460  A.  D. 
divisions  of  another  order  (the  stichometrical)  be- 
came prevalent.  Now,  of  course,  if  a  manuscript 
contains  the  Eusebian  divisions  the  date  must  be 
after  340  A.  D. ;  if  the  stichometrical,  after  460  A.  D. 
If  an  old  Bible  should  come  into  your  hands  with- 
out any  date,  the  question  would  be,  When  was  it 
printed  ?    A  friend  suggests  that  it  must  have  been 


THE  BIBLE  IN  MANUSCRIPT.  31 

issued  from  the  press  as  early  as  1500  A.  D.,  but 
you  say  no,  and  you  call  attention  to  the  present 
verse  division.  Well,  what  of  it?  Nothing,  only 
that  that  fact  shows  the  printing  to  have  been  after 
the  year  1551,  when  this  verse  arrangement  was 
first  made.  In  ways  like  this  the  age  of  manu- 
scripts is  learned  with  great  precision,  and  thus  has 
it  been  proved  that,  though  we  do  not  have  the 
original  manuscripts  of  the  Bible,  we  do  have 
parchments  of  very  great  antiquity.  How  grateful 
we  should  be  to  God  who  has  so  wonderfully 
guarded  them  through  the  ages,  thus  giving  us 
stronger  testimony  for  the  authenticity  of  the  Script- 
ures than  for  that  of  the  ancient  classics  !  Our 
faith  should  be  strengthened  by  evidence  so  conclu- 
sive, and  our  affections  ought  to  cluster  around  the 
parchments  as  tenaciously  as  did  Paul's.  Three  of 
these  manuscripts,  because  of  their  great  age,  de- 
serve special  notice. 

1.  The  Alexandrian  Manuscript  is  assigned  to  the 
fifth  century.  The  translators  who  gave  us  the 
King  James  version  of  the  Scriptures  did  not  have 
access  to  it,  for  they  finished  their  work  in  1611, 
whereas  1628  was  the  year  when  this  manuscript 
was  donated  to  Charles  the  First  of  England  by 
the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who  got  it  in 
Egypt  at  Alexandria,  and  hence  the  name,  Alexan- 
drian Manuscript.  It  is  now  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum, so  fragile  that  it  is  kept  under  glass  and  the 
use  of  it  is  confined  to  scholars,  who  have  access  to 


32  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

it  for  textual  purposes.  The  vellum  is  somewhat 
decayed,  there  being  holes  in  it,  and  some  of  the 
letters  are  worn  away  along  the  margin.  Whole 
leaves  are  missing.  More  than  twenty-four  chap- 
ters of  Matthew  have  at  some  time  dropped  out, 
and  there  are  other  omissions.  It,  however,  con- 
tains most  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  besides 
other  writings,  including  the  only  genuine  Epistle 
of  Clement  to  the  Corinthians — that  Clement  who 
died  about  the  year  100,  and  who  is  supposed  to  be 
the  one  mentioned  by  Paul  in  Philippians  (4 :  3)  as 
a  fellow-worker. 

2.  Of  still  higher  value  is  the  Vatican  Manu- 
script, in  the  Papal  Library  at  Rome.  The  first 
trace  we  get  of  it  is  in  the  year  1475,  when  it 
appears  in  a  catalogue,  the  earliest  made  of  the 
library.  When  Napoleon  was  at  the  zenith  of  his 
power  it  was  transferred  to  Paris,  but  in  1815  came 
Waterloo,  and  the  manuscript  was  returned  to 
Rome,  where  ever  since  it  has  been  jealously 
guarded,  especially  from  Protestant  inspection. 
The  great  English  critic  Tregelles,  with  a  com- 
mendatory letter  from  a  cardinal,  went  in  1845 
to  examine  it,  but  he  was  closely  watched  by 
two  prelates,  who  took  the  precaution  to  search 
his  pockets  and  to  remove  therefrom  pen,  paper 
and  ink,  and  if  he  was  noticed  giving  particular 
attention  to  any  passage,  the  volume  was  snatched 
from  his  hands.  He  only  succeeded  in  making, 
unobserved,  some  notes  upon  his  cuffs  and  finger- 


THE  BIBLE  IN  MANUSCRIPT.  33 

Dails.  In  1866,  Teschendorf,  the  eminent  German 
scholar,  was  more  successful,  giving  the  world 
a  complete  copy.  While  it  lacks  a  large  part 
of  Genesis,  thirty  of  the  Psalms,  Titus,  Timothy, 
Revelation  and  still  other  parts,  it  comprises  the 
bulk  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  It  belongs 
to  the  fourth  century,  and  is  thus  a  hundred  years 
earlier  than  the  Alexandrian.  It  may  be  one  of 
the  fifty  copies  of  the  Greek  Scriptures  which  the 
emperor  Constantine  ordered  to  be  prepared  about 
331  A.  D.,  and  which,  when  finished,  were  conveyed 
to  him,  says  our  authority,  "  in  one  of  the  govern- 
ment wagons"  for  the  imperial  inspection.  Whether 
it  be  one  of  those  copies  or  not,  it,  at  any  rate, 
according  to  the  best  critics,  dates  back  to  300  or 
350  A.  D.2 

3.  To  the  same  century,  the  fourth,  belongs 
another  manuscript,  the  narrative  of  whose  dis- 
covery a  few  years  ago,  not  at  Troas,  but  at  Sinai, 
reads  like  a  romance.  The  hero  is  Tischendorf, 
whose  first  name  (Lobegott)  means  in  German 
"Praise  God  " — a  name  given  him  out  of  gratitude, 
we  are  told,  because  "  a  strange  fear  of  the  mother 
that  her  babe  would  be  born  blind  had  not  come 
true."  And  he  was  by  no  means  born  blind.  No 
man  ever  had  keener  sight,  and  he  spent  his  life  in 
deciphering  old  manuscripts  which  other  eyes  could 
not  read.  He  believed  there  were  many  of  these 
"  hidden  in  dust  and  darkness." 

He  started  on  a  tour  of  investigation,  and  in 


34  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

May,  1844,  he  was  in  the  vicinity  of  Sinai,  where 
the  Law  was  given  through  Moses,  and  where  at 
this  time  was  a  group  of  antique  buildings  called 
the  Convent  of  St.  Catharine.  For  many  centuries 
it  had  been  the  home  of  a  brotherhood  of  monks. 
A  rich  library  had  grown  up  in  the  distant  past,  but 
the  spirit  of  learning  had  long  since  died  out.  The 
convent  was  now  occupied  by  twenty  or  thirty  ig- 
norant hermits,  who  practiced  their  monastic  rites 
and  entertained  travelers  as  occasion  offered.  It 
was  a  peculiar  haunt  or  retreat,  being  enclosed  by  a 
wall  forty  feet  in  height.  The  place  of  entrance  was 
thirty  feet  high,  and  to  this  aperture  or  door  in  the 
wall  the  visitor  had  to  be  elevated  "  by  a  rope."  Up 
this  rope  Teschendorf  first  sent  his  credentials,  and, 
these  being  satisfactory,  he  himself  was  hauled  up. 

He  had  access  to  the  library,  and  while  examin- 
ing the  volumes  on  the  shelves  he  noticed  a  basket 
of  waste  material  on  the  floor  awaiting  use  as  kin- 
dling, two  basketfuls  of  similar  fragments  having 
already  served  that  purpose.  Picking  over  the 
musty  pieces,  he  came  upon  several  leaves  of  the 
Old  Testament  in  Greek,  evidently  very  ancient. 
He  was  allowed  to  take  forty-three  of  these  leaves, 
but  the  rest  of  the  manuscript  had  assumed  a  new 
value  now  that  the  learned  stranger  seemed  anxious 
for  its  possession.  He  departed,  telling  the  monks 
to  take  good  care  of  what  remained,  and  he  returned 
home,  depositing  the  forty-three  leaves  in  the  Uni- 
versity Library  at  Leipzig. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  MANUSCRIPT.  35 

Some  years  passed  away,  but  he  did  not  forget 
the  treasure  left  behind  at  Siuai.  He  tried  twice — 
once  through  a  friend  and  again  in  person — to  se- 
cure the  parchment  or  at  least  a  copy  of  the  manu- 
script, but  he  failed.  With  credentials  from  the 
Czar  of  Russia,  the  head  of  the  Greek  Church,  he 
was  once  more  in  the  Sinaitic  convent  in  the  year 
1859,  but  the  long-desired  treasure  was  nowhere  to 
be  seen,  and  he  was  about  to  leave  disappointed 
when  one  afternoon  he  and  the  steward  of  the  con- 
vent walked  out  together,  coming  back  about  sun- 
down. The  conversation  had  been  about  books,  and 
the  steward,  inviting  him  into  his  cell  for  supper, 
brought  from  a  corner  a  bulky  volume  wrapped 
in  red  cloth.  The  scholarly  German  immediately 
recognized  the  book  ;  there  were  some  of  the  very 
leaves  he  had  rescued  from  the  waste-basket  fifteen 
years  before. 

This  Sinaitic  Manuscript  contained  most  of  the 
Old  Testament,  the  whole  of  the  New,  besides  the 
Epistle  of  Barnabas  and  the  Shepherd  of  Hennas, 
the  authors  of  which  both  flourished  before  140  A.  D. 
Tischendorf,  concealing  his  emotions  to  the  best  of 
his  ability,  asked  carelessly  if  he  could  take  the  vol- 
ume to  his  room  and  look  it  over  more  leisurely. 
Once  out  of  sight  with  it,  he  "fairly  danced  for 
joy."  All  night  long  by  the  dim  light  of  a  candle 
he  was  engaged  in  copying.  He  managed  to  keep 
control  of  it  long  enough  to  get  a  complete  copy,  and 
the  original  itself  was  finally  gotten  to  St.  Petersburg 


36  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

"under  the  form  of  a  loan,"  and  the  loan  seems 
likely  to  be  made  perpetual,  though  not  without 
bitter  protest  from  the  owners.  Fac-simile  copies 
have  been  made  of  it  and  donated  to  various  great 
libraries. 

Such  are  the  most  ancient  manuscripts  which 
have  appeared  in  modern  times  to  assist  in  estab- 
lishing the  word  of  God.  Their  preservation  has 
been  marvelous,  providential  and  almost  mirac- 
ulous. The  last  two  of  them  are  so  old  they  may 
have  been  read  by  Eusebius  when  our  ancestors 
were  barbarians  who  could  neither  read  nor  write. 
They  put  the  Scriptures  on  a  surer  basis  than  exists 
for  Homer,  Herodotus,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Cicero  or 
any   other  ancient  author. 

Still  stronger  manuscript  evidence  for  the  genu- 
ineness of  the  Bible  may  in  the  years  to  come  be  pro- 
duced. This  is  an  age  of  discovery,  and  valuable 
works  may  yet  be  unearthed,  when  we  recollect 
that  a  century  and  a  third  ago  (1750-60),  in  the 
excavations  at  Pompeii,  books  buried  there  in  79 
A.  D.  came  forth  to  startle  the  world,  and  when  we 
remember  that  the  Sinaitic  Manuscript,  a  parchment 
of  the  fourth  century,  was  found  less  than  thirty 
years  ago.  Perhaps  some  of  Paul's  Epistles  in  the 
handwriting  of  Tertius,  with  a  postscript  by  him- 
self, will  yet  appear.  The  apostle  sent  for  his 
"books,  especially  the  parchments,"  but  he  may 
have  never  received  them  from  Troas  ;  they  may 
be  lying  buried  now  somewhere  about  that  city. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  MANUSCRIPT.  37 

where  he  left  them  with  his  friend  Carpus.  What 
if  Schliemann,  in  his  excavations  at  Troy  or  Troas, 
should  find  not  Homeric  relics,  but  Paul's  books 
aud  parchments  ?  The  future  alone  can  disclose 
what  Troas  and  other  old  cities  may  possess  in  the 
way  of  biblical  manuscripts.3  Meanwhile  let  us  be 
grateful  for  the  parchments  which  a  kind  Providence 
has  already  brought  down  to  us  from  antiquity.  We 
have  of  the  New  Testament  more  than  a  thousand 
manuscripts,  which  prove  it  beyond  a  shadow  of 
doubt  to  be  genuine.  We  should  cherish  what  has 
thus  been  divinely  kept  for  our  benefit  through  the 
ages. 

Perhaps  we  do  not  have  for  the  Scriptures  that 
intense  love  which  the  apostle  had.  How  he  longed 
to  have  by  him  his  books  and  parchments  !  Among 
these  may  have  been  some  sacred  volume  given 
him,  it  may  be,  by  an  affectionate  mother  while  a 
boy  at  Tarsus,  or  a  gift  from  that  married  sister  at 
Jerusalem  whose  son  once  saved  his  life  from  a 
Jewish  mob.  He  may  have  carried  it  all  through 
his  eventful  career,  amid  the  perils  on  the  sea,  amid 
the  perils  among  the  robbers,  in  hunger  and  thirst, 
in  cold  and  nakedness.  Everywhere  it  had  been 
his  comfort,  fortifying  him  for  every  emergency, 
and  now  that  he  was  in  a  Roman  dungeon,  with 
the  long  nights  of  a  dreary  winter  coming  on,  and 
with  sure  death  from  the  monster  Nero  in  the 
spring,  he  seems  to  have  wanted  again  the  old 
Bible,  left  with  his   other   books  and   parchments 


38  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

at  Troas.  The  volume  would  be  doubly  inter- 
esting from  its  associations  if  given  him  in  the  long 
ago,  when,  as  Farrar  has  beautifully  pictured  him, 
"little  dreaming  of  all  that  would  befall  him,  he 
played,  a  happy  boy,  in  the  dear  old  Tarsian  home." 
Have  any  of  us  such  a  treasure,  a  present  to  us  in 
childhood,  with  a  loved  name  written  below  ours  on 
the  fly-leaf?  If  we  have,  let  us  hunt  it  up,  brush 
away  the  dust  on  its  covers,  and,  as  we  recall  the 
golden  past,  and  as  the  tears  start  to  our  eyes  be- 
cause of  tender  memories,  let  us  open  it  and  once 
more  read  prayerfully  its  warnings  and  encourage- 
ments. One  thing;  is  certain  :  when  we  come  to 
face  death  as  Paul  did,  we  shall  ask  for  the  old 
book,  and  somehow  it  will  be  very  dear  then,  not 
only  because  it  was  perhaps  a  gift  of  a  mother  or  a 
sister  gone  to  heaven,  but  because  it  will  be  a  mes- 
sage of  life  from  the  glorified  Saviour  himself. 

"  How  precious  is  the  book  divine 
By  inspiration  given ! 
Bright  as  a  lamp  its  doctrines  shine, 
To  guide  our  souls  to  heaven." 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH. 

"Every  man  heard  them  speaking  in  his  own  language." — 
Acts  2:  6. 

THE  Old  Testament,  as  all  are  aware,  was 
written  in  Hebrew,4  and  the  New  in  Greek. 
But  the  divine  plan  has  been  to  communicate  the 
truth  to  each  nationality  in  its  own  tongue.  At 
Pentecost  there  were  representatives  from  "  every 
nation  under  heaven,"  and  yet  they  heard  the 
gospel,  says  the  text,  each  "  in  his  own  language." 
What  occurred  then  by  miraculous  power  has  been 
taking  place  ever  since  by  the  slower  process  of 
providential  movements.  The  word  of  life  is  being 
given  to  every  people  in  their  vernacular. 

The  Bible  has  been  more  generally  translated 
than  any  other  book,  having  been  rendered,  in  part 
or  as  a  whole,  by  the  British  Society  into  two  hun- 
dred and  seventy-nine  tongues  and  dialects,  and 
into  more  than  eigditv  lanima^es  by  the  American 
Society.  Away  back  to  280  B.  c,  when  the  Script- 
ures (confined  then  to  the  Old  Testament)  existed 
only  in  Hebrew,  and  when  in  consequence  of  Alex- 
ander's spread   of   Grecian   civilization    the  Greek 

3S 


40  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

language  was  largely  used,  it  was  felt  that  a  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible  into  this  tongue  was  necessary, 
and  the  result  was  the  famous  Septuagint  Version, 
called  Septuagint  (meaning  seventy)  because  that 
number  of  scholars  was  supposed,  though  improb- 
ably, to  have  wrought  upon  the  work. 

When  Grecian  supremacy  was  succeeded  by 
Roman,  the  Scriptures  were  needed  in  Latin,  and 
accordingly  as  early  as  the  second  century  of  the 
Christian  era  there  was  a  version  in  this  tongue, 
which  Jerome  in  the  fourth  century  made  the  basis 
of  what  is  termed  the  Vulgate  (that  is,  common), 
because  it  was  for  common  use,  for  ordinary  readers 
who  did  not  understand  the  original  Hebrew  and 
Greek.  This  translation  was  violently  opposed  at 
first  (as  all  translations  have  been)  on  the  ground 
of  its  being  a  kind  of  tampering  with  God's  word, 
and  on  the  ground  of  its  tending  to  unsettle  the 
faith  of  people.  But  in  the  course  of  years  it  won 
its  way  into  popular  favor. 

Then  there  were  versions  in  Syriac,  Ethiopic  and 
in  still  other  ancient  languages,  and  these,  being 
very  old,  are  of  great  importance  in  proving  the 
genuineness  of  the  Bible.  They  show  that  the  sa- 
cred writings  have  entered  into  the  literature  of  the 
world,  and  our  religion  is  thereby  given  an  historic 
foundation. 

The  Bible  in  English  is  what  we  are  at  present 
specially  to  consider.  Religiously,  our  Saxon  an- 
cestors were  not  very  highly  favored.     They  had  to 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH.  41 

depend  upon  the  clergy  for  most  of  their  knowledge 
of  the  Bible,  for  there  were  only  fragmentary  trans- 
lations and  paraphrases.  Their  language  does  not 
seem  much  like  the  present  English.  When  they 
prayed,  "  Thy  kingdom  come,"  they  said,  "  To 
cymeth  ric  thin."  Their  version  of  "and  his  food 
was  locusts  and  wild  honey  "  ran  as  follows  :  "  and 
hys  mete  waes  gaerstapan  and  wudu-hunig." 

1.  Not  till  the  time  of  WyclifFe  was  the  whole 
Bible  translated  into  English.  His  renderiug  of 
"  Thy  kingdom  come"  was  "Thi  kyngdom  cumme 
to."  He  was  strongly  opposed  by  the  ecclesiastics 
for  presuming  to  give  the  Holy  Book  to  the  laity. 
They  compared  it  to  casting  a  pearl  before  swine, 
but  he  persevered  till,  with  some  assistance,  he  com- 
pleted his  work  in  1380,  having  made  his  trans- 
lation not  from  the  original  Hebrew  and  Greek,  but 
from  the  Latin  Vulgate.  Copies  of  the  volume 
were  eagerly  sought,  although,  it  being  before  the 
invention  of  printing,  a  single  manuscript  copy  sold 
for  two  hundred  dollars  of  our  money.  For  the 
merest  fragment  of  a  Gospel  or  an  Epistle  a  whole 
load  of  hay  would  be  exchanged. 

Wycliffe  was  sincerely  hated  by  that  priestly  age, 
but  he  died  a  natural  death  in  1384.  Not  till  1415 
did  the  papal  authorities  see  what  an  opportunity 
had  been  missed  in  not  making  him  a  martyr.  In 
that  year  they  did  the  next  best  thing.  They  dis- 
interred his  bones,  burnt  them  and  committed  the 
ashes  to  the  river  Swift  to  be  borne  out  into  the 


42  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

ocean.  But,  as  has  been  said,  those  scattered  ashes 
are  emblematic  of  the  wide  diffusion  of  the  Script- 
ures which  Wycliffe  translated. 

2.  More  than  a  hundred  years  later  Tyndale 
proposed  to  have  every  plough-boy  able  to  read 
the  sacred  word.  He  had  to  cross  to  the  Continent 
to  make  his  translation,  because,  to  use  his  own 
expression,  there  was  "  no  place  to  do  it  in  all  Eng- 
land." Even  then  his  steps  were  dogged  by  the 
persecutor.  He  had  to  fly  from  city  to  city,  go 
under  an  assumed  name  and  labor  in  secret.  By 
1526  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  entire 
New  Testament  put  through  the  press,  for  the  art 
of  printing  was  now  known.  English  had  by  this 
time  become  nearly  what  it  is  at  present,  and  we 
readily  recognize  this  sentence,  "  Geve  vs  this  daye 
oure  dayly  breade."  The  difference  is  mainly  in 
the  spelling.  And,  so  far  as  that  is  concerned,  our 
Authorized  Version  has  been  changed  since  1611, 
when  we  find  sin  spelt  s-i-nn-e,  and  truth,  t-r-u-e-t-h. 
Aside  from  the  spelling,  Tyndale  has  largely  given 
us  our  scriptural  vocabulary,  although  some  of  his 
words  have  been  changed,  and  so  we  say,  for  in- 
stance, dogs  where  he  translated  "whelppes." 
The  meaning,  of  course,  is  the  same  with  either 
rendering,  and  taste  determines  which  is  the  pref- 
erable word.  When  the  Bible  is  revised  it  is  not 
changed  as  to  its  real  substance,  but  only  in  the 
outer  dress.  The  wording  of  Tyndale,  however, 
has  not  been  greatly  altered.     He  was  a  fine  lin- 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH.  43 

guist,  and  translating,  as  he  did,  from  the  original 
Hebrew  and  Greek,  his  work  surpassed  Wycliffe's 
in  value. 

Copies  were  shipped  to  England,  where  every- 
thing was  done  to  prevent  their  sale.  Spies  were 
on  the  watch  and  whole  editions  were  bought  up 
and  committed  to  the  flames  by  the  authorities. 
But  an  extensive  circulation  could  not  be  prevented, 
and  there  seemed  to  be  no  alternative  except  to  cut 
off  the  source  of  supplies.  Tyndale  himself  must 
be  put  out  of  the  way,  and  accordingly  he  was 
arrested,  having  been  betrayed  by  an  Englishman 
who  pretended  to  be  his  friend,  and  who  had  bor- 
rowed some  money  from  him  on  the  very  morning 
of  the  betrayal.  He  was  thrown  into  prison, 
whence  he  wrote  a  letter  beseeching  the  officer  in 
charge  to  make  him  a  little  more  comfortable.  He 
pleaded,  to  quote  his  own  words,  for  "  a  warmer 
cap,  for  I  suffer  extremely  from  a  cold  in  the  head ;" 
for  a  "  warmer  coat  also,  for  that  which  I  have  is 
very  thin  ;"  and  for  "  a  candle  in  the  evening,  for 
it  is  wearisome  to  sit  alone  in  the  dark."  Thus  did 
the  noble  Tyndale  suffer  that  he  might  give  even 
the  plough-boys  of  England  the  word  of  God. 
Finally,  in  1536  he  was  strangled,  and  his  body 
was  subsequently  given  to  the  flames. 

3.  After  Wycliffe  and  Tyndale,  on  the  roll  of 
honor  and  of  biblical  fame,  comes  Coverdale,  who 
translated  (mostly  from  Luther's  German  version 
and  from  the  Latin  Vulgate)  the  entire  Scriptures 


44  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

in  a  single  year  (1535).  Thus  another  version  was 
put  into  circulation,  with  a  different  phraseology, 
which,  for  instance,  made  the  dove  of  Noah's  ark  to 
carry  the  olive-branch,  not  in  the  mouth,  but  "  in 
hir  nebb."  Public  opinion  had  now  begun  to 
change,  and  Coverdale  went  so  far  as  to  dedicate 
his  Bible  to  the  king,  the  corrupt  Henry  the  Eighth, 
who,  in  the  excessive  flattery  to  which  that  age  was 
given,  was  likened  to  Moses,  Hezekiah  and  other 
Old-Testament  worthies. 

4.  John  Rogers  (with  the  pseudonym  of  Matthew), 
the  famous  martyr,  who  had  labored  with  Tyndale 
on  the  Continent  in  the  work  of  translating  the 
Bible,  next  prepared  a  version,  which  was  about 
two-thirds  that  of  Tyndale  and  one-third  that  of 
Coverdale.  This  was  called  Matthew's  Bible,  and 
was  issued  in  1537.  So  far  had  the  authorities 
grown  favorable  that  this  received  the  king's  "  most 
gracious  license."  But  Henry  the  Eighth  was  about 
as  variable  with  regard  to  versions  as  he  was  with 
regard  to  his  wives. 

5.  Accordingly,  in  1538  another  version  was  be- 
gun under  the  superintendence  of  Coverdale  at 
Paris,  where  the  facilities  for  publishing  were  bet- 
ter than  in  London.  No  sooner  was  the  new  work 
under  way  at  the  French  capital  than  the  papal 
power  interfered,  and  it  had  to  be  finished  in  Eng- 
land. Thus  in  1539  the  Great  Bible  (prepared 
chiefly  from  Matthew's)  appeared — sometimes  called 
Cranmer's,  on  account  of  a  preface  which  he  had  in 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH.  45 

some  editions,  but  more  generally  known  as  the 
Great  Bible,  because  it  was  so  very  large.5  This 
was  the  royal  favorite,  although  Henry  before  he 
died  seems  to  have  become  prejudiced  against  hav- 
ing the  Bible  translated  at  all.  He  complained 
that  it  was  becoming  too  common ;  or,  to  use  his 
own  expression,  he  disliked  to  have  it  "disputed, 
rhymed,  sung  and  jangled  in  every  alehouse  and 
tavern."  It  had  become  as  popular  as  the  Gospel 
Hymns  of  to-day.  Before  any  positively  backward 
movement  was  taken  Henry  died  (1547),  and  under 
his  successor,  Edward  the  Sixth,  during  his  six  and 
a  half  years'  reign,  Bibles  were  multiplied.  All 
the  versions  were  sold,  although  Tyndale's  seemed  to 
take  the  lead.  "  So  mightily  grew  the  word  of  the 
Lord  and  prevailed." 

6.  Then  came  a  change.  In  1553  "  Bloody 
Mary "  ascended  the  throne.  During  her  reign 
of  five  years  there  were  nearly  four  hundred  mar- 
tyrs in  England.  Coverdale  narrowly  escaped ; 
Rogers  (alias  Matthew)  was  burned  at  the  stake, 
where,  says  a  contemporary  (Foxe),  he  "  waved  his 
hand  in  the  flame  as  though  it  had  been  cold  water." 
Multitudes  found  safety  in  exile,  and  to  Geneva 
many  of  these  refugees  repaired,  and  here  sprung 
up  another  version,  perhaps  the  most  important  of 
any  yet,  unless  Tyndale's  be  an  exception.  Several 
distinguished  scholars  were  engaged  upon  it,  bring- 
ing it  out  iu  full  in  1560.  This  Genevan  Bible  is 
sometimes  called  the  "Breeches  Bible"  because  it 


46  THE  BIBLE  VERIFIED. 

says  our  first  parents  made  themselves  not  "  aprons," 
but  "  breeches."  This  rendering,  however,  really 
originated  with  an  earlier  fragmentary  translation, 
Caxton's. 

The  Genevan  Version  was  dedicated  to  Queen 
Elizabeth,  who  had  recently  succeeded  to  the  Eng- 
lish throne,  and  who  was  reminded  in  the  preface 
that  it  was  her  duty  to  crush  out  the  papacy,  just  as 
Josiah  "  burned" — such  is  the  dedicatory  language 
— "  the  idolatrous  priests'  bones  upon  their  altars 
and  put  to  death  the  false  prophets."  Those  were 
times  when  it  was  worth  while  to  be  in  the  ascend- 
ancy, for  the  principle  of  toleration  was  unknown. 

The  Genevan  Version  was  the  first  to  introduce 
the  present  verse  arrangement,  having  borrowed  the 
idea  from  the  Greek  text  of  Stephens,  who  made 
the  minute  divisions  in  1551  during  a  horseback 
ride  from  Paris  to  Lyons.  This  version  at  once 
took  high  rank,  and  it  really  had  superior  merit. 
It  seemed  likely  to  crowd  out  even  the  Great  Bible, 
which  had  been  considered  on  the  whole  the  best, 
especially  in  the  higher  circles  of  life.  The  Great 
Bible  was  the  one  used  in  the  churches,  but  it  was 
so  very  great,  so  large  and  unwieldy,  it  did  not  find 
its  way  into  the  home.  Now,  the  Genevan,  with 
its  brief  explanatory  notes  (very  essential  in  those 
days),  seemed  just  adapted  to  family  use.  Its  cir- 
culation accordingly  increased  more  and  more.  The 
churchmen  became  alarmed,  not  liking  the  obvious 
opposition  of  its  notes  to  episcopacy. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH.  47 

7.  Recognizing  that  they  could  never  make  the 
bulky  Great  Bible  popular,  they  took  steps  to  pre- 
pare another  version,  which  was  a  revision  of  the 
Great,  and  which  was  published  in  1568.  This  is 
sometimes  called  the  "Treacle  Bible,"  because  of 
the  translation  (Jer.  8  :  22),  "  Is  there  no  tryacle  in 
Gilead?"  where  we  have  "balm;"  but  "triacle" 
also  occurs  in  Coverdale  (1535).  The  more  common 
name  is  the  "Bishops'  Bible,"  because  it  was  the 
work  of  several  bishops,  among  whom  parts  were 
distributed.  It  gave  us  the  word  church,  which 
before  had  generally  been  translated  "  congrega- 
tion." This  was  the  version  which  had  the  eccle- 
siastical sanction,  but  Queen  Elizabeth  herself  did 
not  cast  the  royal  influence  decidedly  in  favor  of 
any  version,  all  the  versions  being  allowed.  It 
was  enough  that  she  took  sides  against  the  papists 
without  antagonizing  any  wing  of  the  Protestants. 

8.  Elizabeth's  persecution  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics resulted  in  their  leaving  the  country  in  large 
numbers.  Many  of  them  took  refuge  at  Rheims 
and  Douay,  and  from  these  places  came  the  Romish 
Bible — the  New  Testament  in  1582  from  Rheims, 
and  the  Old  Testament  in  1609  from  Douay.  The 
translators  acknowledged  that  they  did  not  approve 
of  the  Scriptures  being  rendered  "in  our  mother 
tongue,"  but  that  they  were  forced  into  the  ungrate- 
ful task  because  of  what  they  termed  the  "  impure 
versions"  and  "profane  translations"  of  the  Prot- 
estants.    They  translated  from  the  Latin  Vulgate, 


48  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

which  they  rather  singularly  pronounced  "  better 
than  the  Greek  text  itself/'  although  Greek  was  the 
original  language  of  part  of  the  Bible.  This 
version  renders  "penance"  for  "repentance,"  and 
according  to  it  "  the  hands  of  priesthood,"  and  not 
of  "presbytery,"  were  laid  upon  young  Timothy 
in  ordination.  While  there  are  these  grave  defects, 
the  Catholic  or  Douay  Bible  has  some  more  accurate 
renderings  than  the  other  versions,  as  where  it  is 
said  that  the  lamps  of  the  foolish  virgins  were  going 
out,  not  gone  out,  as  in  our  Authorized  Version ; 
and  the  New  Revision  has  adopted  this  improve- 
ment. 

9.  The  next  version  was  that  of  1611,  under 
King  James.  This  was  made  to  secure  uniformity. 
Even  under  the  preceding  sovereign,  Elizabeth,  a 
bill  was  introduced  "  for  reducing  diversities  of 
Bibles."  It,  however,  was  not  carried  through. 
Under  James  the  feeling  grew  in  favor  of  an 
"authorized"  version.  The  king  disliked  all  ex- 
isting translations,  and  particularly  the  Genevan 
(which  was  the  most  used),  because  of  its  indepen- 
dent notes,  which  savored,  he  said,  "  too  much  of 
traitorous  conceits."  One  bishop  objected  to  any 
more  versions,  on  the  ground  that  "  if  every  man's 
humor  should  be  followed,  there  would  be  no  end 
of  translating."  But  he  was  overruled  in  his 
opinion,  and  soon  forty-seven  (fifty-four  were  at 
first  named)  of  the  ripest  scholars  of  England  were 
at  work.     Both  the  great  universities,  Oxford  and 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH.  49 

Cambridge,  were  represented,  as  well  as  as  both  Pu- 
ritans and  Churchmen,  to  whom  respectively  the 
Genevan  and  the  Bishops'  versions  were  very  dear. 

The  movement  was  begun  in  1604,  and  the  final 
result  was  reached  in  1611,  although  the  actual 
time  spent  was  a  little  more  than  three  years. 
Thus  there  came  into  being  our  so-called  "  Author- 
ized Version/'  combining  the  excellences  of  all  the 
previous  versions  which  the  translators  declared 
to  be  "sound  for  substance."  Theirs  was  un- 
doubtedly an  improvement  upon  any  of  the  pre- 
ceding. It  of  course  encountered  opposition,  and 
for  some  forty  years  the  Genevan  especially  disputed 
the  field  with  it,  but  it  gradually  gained  ground 
till  it  displaced  all  others. 

But  it  was  not  perfect,  and  was  not  so  considered 
from  the  outset.  Under  Cromwell  another  revision 
was  seriously  proposed,  but  the  proposition  came  to 
nothing  on  account  of  the  sudden  dissolution  of 
Parliament. 

10.  After  a  lapse  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
however,  it  is  not  strange  that  modern  scholarship 
entered  upon  the  new  revision  in  1870,  the  best 
scholars  of  both  England  and  America,  without 
distinction  of  sect,  co-operating.  The  result  of 
their  most  careful  labors  through  many  more  years 
than  have  ever  been  given  to  a  similar  work  before 
is  in  our  hands  in  the  Revised  Version,  the  New 
Testament  appearing  in  1881,  and  the  Old  in  1885. 
There  are  certainly  many  improvements.    The  same 

4 


50  THE  BIBLE  VERIFIED. 

word  when  evidently  used  in  the  same  sense  is  no 
longer  translated  by  a  dozen  different,  and  some- 
times confusing,  terms.  Old  manuscripts  which 
have  come  to  light  since  1611  have  enabled  us  to 
get  what  is  more  nearly  the  actual  word  of  God. 
We  have  also  secured  more  accurate,  if  not  more 
euphonious,  renderings.  Poetical  quotations  are 
more  impressive;  the  Psalms  appear  more  what 
they  are — "  songs  of  Zion  " — when  they  are  given, 
as  they  are,  in  their  metrical  form.  For  such  and 
other  reasons  the  Revised  Version  has  been  given  a 
wide  welcome.  It  is  being  largely  introduced  into 
our  institutions  of  learning,  and  it  is  being  used 
more  and  more  in  churches.  Time  alone  can  deter- 
mine whether,  like  other  improved  versions,  it  will 
eventually  come  into  general  favor,  or  whether  it  will 
be  still  further  improved  before  it  displaces  the  version 
which  has  been  used  for  two  centuries  and  a  half. 

The  fear,  at  first  entertained,  of  the  unsettling 
influence  of  a  revision  of  the  Bible  has  been 
dissipated  by  a  growing  intelligence.  Faith  is 
strengthened  by  the  grand  unity  underlying  the 
minor  diversities  of  the  various  versions,  and  by 
the  scholarly  and  painstaking  endeavors  in  successive 
centuries  to  get  at  the  exact  meaning  of  the  words 
spoken  of  old  in  Hebrew  and  Greek  by  prophets 
and  apostles. 

The  Bible  in  English  has  a  bright  prospect  when 
we  consider  with  Gladstone  "  the  future  of  English- 
speaking  races."     This  statesman  has  recently  es- 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH.  51 

timated  those  who  will  speak  English  in  the  year 
2000  at  eight  hundred  and  forty  millions.  He 
calculates  that  the  United  States  alone  by  1987  will 
have  five  hundred  and  fifty  to  five  hundred  and 
eighty  milllions  who  will  speak  the  language  of 
Shakespeare.  He  thinks  that  a  century  hence  those 
who  speak  English  may  outnumber  those  using  all 
the  other  European  tongues.  This  signifies  a  great 
deal  as  to  the  future  of  our  English  Bible.  Already, 
says  Dr.  N.  G.  Clark,  athe  English  language, 
saturated  with  Christian  ideas,  gathering  up  into 
itself  the  best  thought  of  all  the  ages,  is  the  great 
agent  of  Christian  civilization  throughout  the 
world,  at  this  moment  affecting  the  destinies  and 
moulding  the  character  of  half  the  human  race." 
If  an  Anglo-Saxon  minority  is  having  such  a 
mighty  influence,  what  will  not  its  coming  majority 
accomplish  ?  The  Bible  in  English  is  destined  to 
dominate  the  world,  to  be  largely  instrumental  in 
its  conversion.  Let  us  therefore  treasure  this  book 
which  has  come  down  through  the  ages  by  being 
translated  into  new  languages  wrhen  the  old  have 
died ;  which  has  sought  and  found  the  latest  and 
very  best  expression  when  languages  have  been 
modified  by  time;  which  has  increasingly  appeared 
in  all  the  tongues  of  earth,  elevating  every  nation 
where  it  has  been  read  in  the  vernacular;  and 
which  has  with  special  care  been  wrought  into 
English,  the  tongue  that  most  of  all  is  to  be  used 
round  the  globe. 


CHAPTEE    IV. 

THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

"Every  scripture  inspired  of  God  is  also  profitable  for 
teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  which  is  in 
righteousness."— 2  Tim.  3  :  16. 

THIS  text  gives  us  for  a  theme  the  Inspiration 
of  the  Bible. 
1.  In  the  first  place,  what  are  some  of  the  scrip- 
tural representations  of  this  subject?  The  writers 
of  the  Old  Testament  are  constantly  saying,  "  Thus 
saith  the  Lord."  David's  words  in  one  of  the 
Psalms  are  quoted  in  Hebrews  as  the  language  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  Paul  refers  to  the  Spirit  of  God 
speaking  by  different  prophets.  Peter  says  that  the 
prophets  were  "  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  Nor 
did  the  apostles  consider  their  own  words  as  less 
authoritative.  Paul  tells  the  Corinthians  that  what 
he  writes  them  is  "  the  commandment  of  the  Lord." 
He  professes  to  speak  "not  in  words  which  man's 
wisdom  teacheth,  but  which  the  Spirit  teacheth." 
In  fact,  all  the  apostles  make  the  salvation  of  men 
dependent  on  faith  in  the  doctrines  which  they 
preached.  Still  higher  authority  we  find  in  the 
Saviour  himself.     As  regards  the  Old  Testament, 

52 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE.         53 

he  again  and  again  refers  to  it  to  confirm  even  what 
he  says;  and  as  regards  the  New,  when  he  com- 
missioned the  disciples  to  teach  he  said,  "  It  is  not 
ye  that  speak,  but  the  Spirit  of  your  Father  that 
speaketh  in  you."  All  Christians,  then,  can  feel 
that  in  the  Bible  they  have  the  word  of  God. 

2.  To  take  a  step  in  advance,  Does  the  super- 
natural enter  into  the  idea  of  inspiration  ?  It 
would  seem  that  the  writers  of  the  Bible  had  more 
than  ordinary  spiritual  illumination.  They  spoke 
with  an  authority  more  than  human.  No  preacher 
at  the  present  time  can  reasonably  claim  to  be 
taught  by  direct  revelation,  nor  can  he  call  what  he 
urges  a  "  commandment  of  the  Lord  ;"  and  yet  an 
apostle  could  and  did  do  this.  We  never  preface  a 
remark  with  a  genuine  "Thus  saith  the  Lord." 
We  may  possibly  venture  it  with  the  sanction  of 
Scripture,  but  never  as  intending  to  imply  that  we 
received  the  communication  direct  from  Heaven. 
Our  preaching  has  power  only  so  far  as  we  can  say, 
Thus  saith  Scripture.  The  apostles  and  prophets 
could  go  back  of  the  written  word,  and  say  with 
all  the  force  that  comes  from  a  personal,  face-to-face 
knowledge,  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord."  Here,  there- 
fore, is  a  distinctive  characteristic  of  a  true  inspira- 
tion. All  God's  people  are  inspired  in  a  certain 
way,  but  divine  authority  is  connected  only  with 
those  who  can  utter  words  breathed  from  an  inspira- 
tion which  is  supernatural.  This  test  separates  the 
Scriptures  from  all  other  writings.    The  authors  of 


54  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

the  Old  Testament  are  either  professedly  God's 
spokesmen  (and  they  sustain  their  claim  by  their  life 
and  work)  or  they  are  recognized  as  such  by  those 
whose  divine  inspiration  is  undoubted.  The  Old 
Testament  as  a  whole  is  repeatedly  appealed  to  by 
the  Saviour  even  to  give  weight  to  his  own  God- 
spoken  words.  As  to  the  New  Testament,  it  was 
composed  by  those  who  had  the  promise  of  being 
led  by  the  Spirit  "  into  all  the  truth/'  Inspiration 
is  thus  more  than  the  enlightenment  common  to  be- 
lievers. For  this  reason  the  Epistles  just  after  the 
apostolic  age  are  excluded  from  the  canon.  One  is 
impressed  with  the  descent  he  has  made  when  he 
compares  Paul  with  Ignatius,  and  the  apostolic 
writings  in  general  with  the  earliest  patristic  liter- 
ature. It  has  well  been  said  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment "  is  not  like  a  city  of  modern  Europe,  which 
subsides  through  suburban  gardens  and  groves  and 
mansions  into  the  open  country  around,  but  like  an 
Eastern  city  in  the  desert,  from  which  the  traveler 
passes  by  a  single  step  into  a  barren  waste."  In  the 
Bible  alone  we  find  the  truth  at  first  hand.  Ordi- 
nary Christians  get  their  knowledge  at  second  hand. 
They  have  to  search  the  Scriptures,  they  must  use 
instrumentalities  —  instrumentalities  furnished  by 
holy  men  of  old  who  talked  with  Jehovah  himself, 
and  so  received  the  truth  from  God's  own  lips. 
Such  is  inspiration — not  when  the  soul  through 
provided  avenues  goes  after  God,  but  when  the 
human  spirit  touches  the  great  Spirit,  feeling  the 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE.         55 

thrill  of  personal  contact,  inbreathing  the  pure  truth 
till  it  is  not  Paul-inspired,  but  God-inspired. 

And  while  the  faculties  of  the  sacred  writers 
seem  sometimes  to  have  been  merely  quickened  and 
elevated  as  they  related  what  they  saw  or  what  they 
learned  through  human  testimony,  they  certainly 
had  also  an  illumination  of  a  higher  kind  than 
this;  as  Paul  had  when  he  received  "revelations 
of  the  Lord,"  and  when  he  solemnly  declared  of 
the  gospel,  "  Neither  did  I  receive  it  from  man,  nor 
was  I  taught  it,  but  it  came  to  me  through  revela- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ."  God  might  grant  this  super- 
natural inspiration  to  men  now  as  of  old,  so  that  the 
same  weight  should  be  attached  to  their  words. 
This  is  possible,  and  yet  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  seems 
not  to  be  done.  If  one  speaks  with  the  authority 
of  a  Paul,  we  can  pay  him  the  same  deference, 
provided  that  he  shows  the  signs  of  an  apostle. 
Let  him  work  miracles,  and  then  we  may  consider 
the  propriety  of  enlarging  the  canon.  We  can 
test  his  apostolic  claims,  as  we  say  with  Luther, 
"Send  him  into  the  graveyard,  and  let  him  raise 
the  dead." 

3.  While  inspiration  is  supernatural,  it  is  not  al- 
ways or  mainly  a  process  of  dictation.  Holy  men 
spake  as  moved  by  the  Spirit ;  they  were  men,  and 
not  machines.  Their  faculties  were  not  generally 
overpowered  with  the  divine,  so  much  as  thev 
were  stimulated  and  exalted.  Sometimes,  indeed, 
one  was  so  filled  with  the  Spirit  that  he  wrote  in  a 


56  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

strain  more  or  less  mysterious  to  himself  even,  for 
we  learn  from  the  first  chapter  of  the  first  letter  of 
Peter  that  prophets  searched  into  the  meaning  of 
their  own  utterances.  Probably  the  orator  in  the 
fervor  of  address  sweeps  along  with  a  grandeur  and 
an  eloquence  surprising  to  himself  in  his  cooler 
moments.  This  may  partially  account  for  Peter's 
statement  that  the  prophets  studied  their  own  pre- 
dictions, but  this  explanation  does  not  give  the 
whole  truth.  We  must  distinguish  between  the 
inspiration  of  revelation  and  of  elevation.  The 
former  is  that  of  a  man  who  did  not  know  whether 
he  was  "  in  the  body  "  or  "  out  of  the  body  " — a 
condition  of  things  making  somewhat  pertinent  the 
familiar  illustration  of  a  musical  instrument  played 
upon  and  giving  out  unconsciously -the  harmonies 
of  its  masterful  manipulator.  But  even  the  chief 
of  the  apostles  intimated  that  this  was  an  excep- 
tional experience,  and  he  seemed  desirous  of  being 
regarded  as  a  man  among  men,  with  the  common 
passions  of  humanity,  yet  so  dominated  by  the 
Spirit  as  to  be  one  of  the  Lord's  authoritative 
teachers.  "  There  are  diversities  of  gifts,"  he  said, 
"  but  the  same  Spirit."  He  recognized  that  indi- 
vidual peculiarities  are  preserved.  Inspiration  did 
not  become  merely  mechanical,  so  as  to  destroy 
personality,  but  it  used  different  persons  in  the  way 
in  which  they  were  variously  constituted  mentally. 
We  see  this  to  be  an  actual  fact  with  regard  to 
biblical  authors.    The  logical  Paul  shows  his  power 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE.         57 

of  reasoning  in  every  sentence.  The  devotional 
John  is  more  emotional  and  meditative  in  what  he 
says.  The  matter-of-fact  James  writes  plainly  and 
practically.  The  Bible  is  a  very  natural  as  well 
as  supernatural  book.  It  is  not  a  collection  of 
rhythmical,  stilted  verses  from  the  frenzied  head 
of  a  Delphic  priestess.  It  is  the  product  of  men 
speaking  out  from  the  fullness  of  sanctified  per- 
sonalities. Individuality  is  not  suppressed ;  it  is 
stimulated,  developed  and  glorified.  The  apostles 
were  not  mere  pens  in  the  hands  of  an  overruling 
Spirit.  They  wrote  according  to  their  own  natures, 
being,  as  the  chief  of  them  said,  "  men  of  like  pas- 
sions" with  the  rest  of  mankind.  Their  inspira- 
tion was  not  automatic,  but  pervasive  and  en- 
ergizing. 

4.  We  are  next  led  to  inquire  the  extent  of  in- 
spiration. Is  it  plenary,  extending  to  the  words  ? 
The  fact  seems  to  be  that  all  the  sacred  writers  were 
inspired,  but  in  different  degrees.  The  strictest 
inspirationist  must  admit  that  the  eighth  chapter 
of  Romans  has  more  of  the  spiritual  element  than 
the  first  chapter  of  Chronicles.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  Psalms  and  genealogical  tables  is  appar- 
ent. Baxter  considered  portions  of  the  Bible  to  be 
like  the  nails  and  hair  as  related  to  the  human 
body.  Nevertheless,  we  must  regard  even  the  com- 
monplace parts  of  the  Scriptures  as  inspired,  unless 
we  consider  inspiration  a  kind  of  fit.  We  can 
hardly  suppose  the  apostle  Paul  to  have  been  an 


58  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

ordinary  mortal  when  he  wrote  his  friendly  saluta- 
tions to  various  persons  named,  and  then  suddenly 
to  have  become  an  entirely  different  being  when  he 
poured  forth  his  living  thoughts.  Inspiration  is 
not  a  momentary  assistance,  when  the  Spirit  wishes 
to  be  eloquent ;  it  is  a  controlling  force  in  all 
the  life.  The  inspired  penmen  had  within  them 
a  vital  principle.  They  were  not  spasmodically 
seized  by  the  Spirit  to  communicate  some  truth, 
and  then  released  to  follow  their  own  pleasure. 
They  were  so  possessed  and  penetrated  by  the  spir- 
itual that  everything  they  wrote  had  weight.  If  a 
great  and  good  man  should  write  us  a  letter,  we 
would  not  reject  as  useless  the  superscription  be- 
cause it  might  not  have  in  it  the  fire  of  genius.  The 
whole  letter  would  be  a  treasure,  though  some  parts 
might  be  better  than  others.  We  would  not  be 
disposed  to  run  a  priming-knife  through  it  and  to 
throw  aside  the  less  important  portions.  We  would 
not  be  so  finical  as  that.  Even  so  the  whole  Bible 
is  inspired,  though  it  may  not  be  all  equally 
precious,  and  we  are  not  going  to  choose  and  reject 
its  contents  in  accordance  with  any  superfine  critical 
spirit.  The  beauty  of  the  Bible  is  that  it  treats  of 
the  historical.  It  shows  the  working  of  God  in 
history.  It  is  not  a  body  of  doctrine  claiming  to 
have  been  let  down  from  heaven  all  cut  and  dried 
at  a  definite  past  period.  It  grew  out  of  circum- 
stances from  time  to  time.  It  has  to  do  with  facts, 
with  actual  events,  and  with  God  manifest  therein, 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE.         59 

and  hence  it  takes  hold  of  us  with  all  the  force  of 
tremendous  reality.  The  oak,  grand  and  strong, 
has  insignificant  outgrowths,  but  it  is  the  same  sap 
which  courses  through  the  trunk  and  through  its 
smallest  branches.  The  glorious  old  Bible  may 
have  comparatively  unimportant  parts,  but  it  is  the 
same  spirit  which  gives  life  to  the  whole. 

In  saying  that  inspiration  extends  to  all  the  con- 
tents of  Scripture  are  we  committed  to  verbal  in- 
spiration ?  In  a  certain  sense,  yes.  Words  express 
thought,  and  it  would  be  of  little  avail  to  maintain 
spiritual  help  in  getting  the  truth,  if  the  truth  must, 
after  all,  be  communicated  in  words  bungling  and 
inaccurate.  As  Van  Oosterzee  says :  "  If  the  true 
poetic  spirit  enables  one  to  seize  at  once,  and  as  by 
intuition,  the  exact  and  only  suitable  word  for  that 
which  one  desires  to  express,  how  much  more  shall 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit !"  That  is,  if  poetic 
inspiration  is  so  felicitous  in  catching  the  precise 
word,  divine  inspiration  cannot  surely  have  less 
power  of  expression. 

5.  One  more  question  arises :  Does  the  doctrine 
of  inspiration,  as  has  been  set  forth,  exclude  ab- 
solutely all  errors  from  the  Bible?  Matthew,  for 
instance,  in  citing  an  Old-Testament  prophecy  give- 
it  from  Jeremiah,  whereas  it  is  found  in  Zechariah. 
Apparently  this,  unless  it  is  an  error  of  transcribers, 
is  a  slip  of  memory.  Ther  \  are  other  alleged  in- 
accuracies of  a  trifling  nature,  aud,  granting  that 
the  explauatious  offered   are  not  altogether   satis- 


60  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

factory,  our  faith  need  not  be  disturbed.  The 
disciples  were  promised  the  Spirit  to  lead  them 
into  "all  the  truth,"  and  the  truth  indicated  is 
spiritual  truth,  the  truth  of  the  gospel.  The 
authority  of  a  New-Testament  writer  in  morals 
and  religion  can  hardly  be  thought  to  be  impaired 
by  a  possible  failure  to  name  the  right  author  of  a 
certain  sentiment.  An  argument  in  favor  of  the 
equal  rights  of  blacks  and  whites  would  not  be 
invalidated  by  an  illustration  drawn  from  some 
slave's  condition  in  Georgia,  even  though  it  might 
be  discovered  afterward  that  said  slave  had  lived 
not  in  Georgia,  but  in  Alabama.  Any  trivial  in- 
accuracy (if  such  there  be)  on  the  part  of  the  bibli- 
cal authors  does  not  affect  their  reliability  as  regards 
the  plan  of  salvation  taught  them  by  the  Lord  him- 
self or  by  direct  revelation. 

So  if  it  should  be  established  that  Old-Testament 
writers  shared  the  false  astronomical  notions  of  their 
contemporaries,  and  that  they  even  gave  expression 
incidentally  to  a  mistaken  astronomy,  they  could  still 
be  infallible  religious  guides.  Baronius  long  ago 
said  with  fine  force,  "  Scripture  is  not  given  to 
make  us  acquainted  with  the  course  of  heavenly 
bodies,  but  with  the  way  to  heaven  itself."  In- 
spired Scripture  is  profitable,  according  to  the  text, 
for  what?  To  inform  us  upon  Huxley's  molecular 
changes?  No.  To  give  scientific  explanation  of 
the  Copernican  system  of  the  universe?  No.  To 
give  a  description  of  trilobites  and  brachiopods? 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE.         61 

No.  But  "  profitable  for  teaching,  for  reproof,  for 
correction,  for  instruction  which  is  in  righteous- 
ness." It  gives  us  a  development  theory,  to  be 
sure,  but  it  is  Christian  development — how  to  grow 
in  grace  till  the  stature  of  perfect  manhood  in 
Christ  Jesus  is  reached.  The  first  chapter  in  Gen- 
esis is  not  meant  to  teach  geology.  The  great 
thought  there  is  not,  In  the  beginning  —  proto- 
plasm, or  "  frog-spawn M  as  Carlyle  said ;  not,  In 
the  beginning — a  fire-mist;  but  back  of  all  this, 
"  In  the  beginning — God  created  the  heaven  and 
the  earth. "  A  geological  error,  if  proved,  need 
not  unsettle  our  faith  in  the  reliability  of  the  Bible 
within  the  sphere  of  religion.  A  first-class  doctor 
to  whom  we  should  be  willing  to  entrust  our  lives 
might  within  the  domain  of  the  law  make  mistakes 
without  any  discredit  to  him  as  a  physician.  A 
pilot  might  be  entirely  safe  in  conducting  us  past 
danger  in  a  rushing  stream,  even  if  he  called  the 
obstruction  in  the  river-bed  trap-rock  when  he 
should  have  said  sand-stone.  The  Bible  can  be  an 
unerring  religious  guide  even  though  it  might  say 
Jeremiah  when  it  should  have  said  Zechariah,  and 
though  it  might  make  some  astronomical  or  geolog- 
ical or  historical  error.  Yet  alleged  errors  do  not 
always  turn  out  to  be  such.  Nearly  all,  if  not 
quite  all,  difficulties  in  the  Bible  have  been  satis- 
factorily explained  or  harmonized  without  admitting 
that  there  have  been  mistakes  of  any  kind.  And 
if  there  is  still  an  occasional  obstacle  to  entire  faith, 


62  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

we  may  well  wait  for  further  light  before  positively 
pronouncing  against  the  infallibility  of  the  Bible 
along  all  lines. 

Take  the  case  of  the  proper  title  of  Sergius 
Paulus,  the  governor  of  the  island  of  Cyprus. 
Luke,  in  the  Acts,  called  him  "  proconsul,"  whereas, 
it  used  to  be  averred,  he  should  have  said  "  pro- 
praetor," for  Cyprus  was  an  imperial  and  not  a 
senatorial  province.  Both  Strabo  and  Dion  Cas- 
sius  name  Cyprus  an  imperial  district,  and  its  gov- 
ernor should  therefore  have  been  called  proprietor, 
so  formerly  said  those  who  would  discredit  Luke. 
Christians  used  to  be  troubled  by  the  apparent  in- 
accuracy of  Luke  in  saying  "  proconsul,"  and  the 
eminent  Grotius  reluctantly  admitted,  on  the  author- 
ity of  the  two  pagan  writers  quoted,  that  the  author 
of  the  Acts  had  fallen  into  an  error.  It  was  as  if 
one  should  pretend  to  write  the  history  of  the  pres- 
ent, and  should  speak  of  Mr.  Cleveland  as  Senator 
instead  of  President.  Of  course,  Christians  were 
distressed,  and  they  resorted  to  all  sorts  of  ingenious 
explanations.  But  by  and  by  in  the  same  secular 
historian,  Dion  Cassius,  it  was  discovered  that  while 
Augustus  did  hold  Cyprus  as  an  imperial  province 
for  a  while,  he  exchanged  it  for  another  district, 
and  it  thus  became  a  senatorial  province,  and  pro- 
consul became  the  proper  title  for  its  governor,  and 
Luke,  after  all,  was  shown  to  be  correct.  To  make 
the  matter  still  surer,  coins  of  the  time  have  been 
found,  and  these  call  the  rulers  of  Cyprus  procon- 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE.         63 

suls.  Still  further,  General  Cesnola  in  his  recent 
excavations  at  Cyprus  came  upon  a  coin  bearing 
the  inscription,  "  in  the  proconsulship  of  Paulus," 
who  may  have  been  the  very  one  named  by  Luke. 
So  completely  has  been  established  even  the  histor- 
ical accuracy  of  the  author  of  the  Acts  iu  speaking 
of  the  proconsul  Sergius  Paul  us.  More  light  may 
clear  up  other  difficulties,  and  we  should  be  slow  to 
admit  errors  of  any  kind  in  God's  word.  We  can 
afford  to  hang  up  present  perplexities  and  to  wait, 
while  yet  there  is  always  that  impreguable  position, 
to  which  Ave  can  if  necessary  fall  back,  of  the  infal- 
libility of  the  Bible  in  all  spiritual  matters  at 
least. 

We  thus  have  in  the  Scriptures  the  word  of  God, 
supernaturally  though  not  mechanically  inspired, 
pervaded  throughout  by  the  Spirit,  even  to  the 
words  so  far  as  these  are  essential  to  main  ideas, 
while  at  the  same  time  any  possible  minor  mistakes 
on  side  issues  need  not  weaken  our  faith  in  the 
trustworthiness  of  those  whose  grand  theme  is  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

There  is  a  human  and  a  divine  element  in 
inspiration.  The  exact  relations  of  the  two  seem 
incapable  of  precise  statement  The  question  is  one 
which  is  trying  the  minds  of  the  present  generation, 
and  in  the  end  the  efforts  may  be  no  more  satisfactory 
than  have  been  the  attempts  to  define  the  exact 
relations  between  the  human  and  the  divine  in  the 
God-man.     We   can   be  thankful   for   the  human 


64  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

element  in  the  Bible,  as  we  are  for  the  human 
nature  united  with  the  divine  nature  in  Christ.  It 
gives  point  of  contact.  "  In  all  points  tempted  like 
as  we  are,"  "touched  with  the  feeling  of  our 
infirmities."  There  we  have  the  human  in  the 
Lord  Jesus.  It  is  similar  with  the  inspired  writers, 
who  were  men  of  like  passions  with  us.  They 
were  not  spiritual  automatons,  different  from  us  in 
every  particular.  They  had  more  of  the  divine 
rather  than  less  of  the  human.  They  were  men, 
but  men  inspired,  and,  reading  them,  spirit  touches 
spirit  till  we  are  all  aglow,  even  as  burned  the 
hearts  of  the  two  disciples  when  to  them  were 
opened  the  Scriptures. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  MIRACULOUS. 
"  Believe  me  for  the  very  works'  sake." — John  14  :  11. 

CHRIST  here  appeals  to  the  evidence  of  his 
miracles.  Anciently,  the  fact  of  miracles  seems 
not  to  have  been  questioned.  Even  the  Pharisees 
did  not  dispute  their  occurrence.  They  only  claimed 
that  Christ  performed  them  by  being  in  league  with 
Satau.  But  in  modern  times  the  miraculous  is 
deuied  altogether.  Nor  is  the  disbelief  confined  to 
revilers — to  such  men  as  Paine  and  Voltaire,  who 
attacked  the  Bible  bitterly,  wTho  did  not  want  it  to 
be  true  because  of  their  immoral  lives.  The  un- 
belief has  extended  to  persons  of  good  character,  to 
those  who  admire  Christianity  when  stripped  of 
the  supernatural,  to  those  who  are  honest  in  their 
investigations,  who  have  fine  ability,  and  whose 
scientific  attainments,  it  may  be,  are  of  a  higli 
order.  They  say,  as  did  Nicodemus  in  a  different 
connection,  "How  can  these  things  be?"  They 
consider  the  miraculous  as  neither  probable  nor 
possible. 

1.  First,  as  to  the  possibility  of  miracles.     Renan 
says,  "  The  supernatural  is  impossible."     "Without 

6  65 


66  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

considering  any  miracles  in  detail,  let  us  see  in 
general  if  they  are  incredible,  for  if  they  are  the 
Bible,  which  deals  so  largely  in  them,  must  go  to 
the  wall. 

The  rationalist  explains  them  away.  He  says 
that  Christ  gave  sight  to  the  blind,  not  by  a  miracle, 
but  by  his  skill  as  an  oculist.  He  did  not  really 
raise  Lazarus  from  the  dead,  but  he  recovered  him 
from  a  swoon.  The  trouble  with  this  rationalizing 
is  that  sometimes  the  miracles  are  not  so  wonderful 
as  the  explanations.  It  taxes  us  more  to  believe 
the  latter  than  the  former.  Paulus,  for  instance,  at 
the  beginning  of  this  century  said  that  Peter  did 
not  catch  the  fish  with  the  piece  of  money  in  its 
mouth,  but  he  caught  a  fish  and  sold  it  for  the 
amount  named.  He  read  the  record  very  carefully, 
"  Go  thou  to  the  sea,  and  cast  a  hook,  and  take  up 
the  fish  that  first  cometh  up ;  and  when  thou  hast 
opened  his  mouth — "  There !  said  this  rationalist, 
it  is  more  natural  to  suppose  not  that  Peter  opened 
the  fish's  mouth  and  took  out  the  money,  but  that 
he  opened  his  own  mouth,  crying  the  fish  for  sale. 
The  picture  is  more  vivid  than  dignified  as  we 
imagine  the  apostle,  in  accordance  with  this  concep- 
tion, walking  the  streets  of  Capernaum  and  calling, 
"  Nice  fresh  fish  !  just  caught  from  the  lake  !"  The 
story,  taken  literally,  is  a  great  deal  more  credible 
than  any  such  fantastic  explanation.  Miracles  are 
not  so  difficult  that  we  have  to  resort  to  any  such 
makeshifts  of  interpretation. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  MIRACULOUS.        67 

The  possibility  of  miracles  has  sometimes  been 
illustrated  in  this  way — that  they  are  the  result  of 
natural  laws  unknown  to  all  but  the  miracle-worker. 
This  is  the  theory :  God  so  formed  the  universe  in 
the  very  beginning  that  it  should  at  intervals  pro- 
duce miracles.  The  common  illustration  is  that  of  a 
machine  made  to  turn  out  square  numbers  millions 
of  times,  while  after  that  it  gives  forth  a  cube,  and 
then  only  squares  till  the  machine  wears  out.  There 
are  two  ways  of  accounting  for  the  solitary  cube 
number :  the  maker  of  the  machine  may  have 
directly  interfered  at  the  moment,  or  he  may  have 
provided  for  the  change  in  the  original  construction 
of  his  fine  piece  of  mechanism.  Thus  it  is  with 
God's  machine,  the  universe,  which  generally  pro- 
duces ordinary  events,  but  which  once  in  a  while 
gives  forth  the  miraculous.  How  is  it  done  ?  Why, 
by  no  immediate  interference  of  God  ;  the  whole 
thing  was  planned  by  him  from  the  very  outset.  A 
hidden  spring  was  made  to  act  at  long  intervals, 
and  if  we  could  see  this  spring  miracles  would 
seem  perfectly  natural. 

We  may  illustrate  in  another  way :  We  may 
suppose  little  creatures  which  live  for  only  two  or 
three  hours  standing  before  a  clock.  There  is  a 
tradition  among  them  that  the  clock  once  rang  out 
a  terrible  alarm,  startling  all  that  heard.  But  all 
of  them  now  alive  never  heard  anything  except  a 
tick !  tick !  tick  !  or  perhaps  the  striking  of  the 
hour.     Some  of  them   do   not  believe   that   there 


68  T'HE  BIBLE  VERIFIED. 

ever  was  an  alarm.  Fellow-insects  have  come  and 
gone  and  have  heard  nothing  of  the  sort.  Mean- 
while the  clock  runs  on  until  it  comes  to  the  point 
for  which  the  alarm  was  set,  and  all  at  once  there 
is  a  whir  and  a  clatter  and  a  racket,  such  as  has 
not  been  heard  for  several  generations,  and  little 
unbelievers  are  convinced  of  what  through  their 
ignorance  they  had  doubted.  So  we  stand  before 
God's  great  clock  denying  that  there  ever  was  the 
miraculous.  And  yet  it  is  not  incredible  that  there 
was  a  secret  spring  made  to  ring  out  an  alarm  at 
certain  periods — that  there  came  after  a  long  lapse 
of  time  the  miraculous  to  arrest  the  attention  of 
mankind  and  to  wake  them  up  to  the  higher  ends 
of  human  existence. 

A  more  poetic  illustration  is  furnished  by  the 
century-plant.  The  first  year  it  has  no  blossom, 
nor  has  it  the  second  year,  nor  the  third,  nor  the 
twentieth,  nor  the  seventieth ;  and  then  the  owner 
dies.  His  son  keeps  the  plant.  He  is  asked  if  it 
ever  blooms.  "  Oh  no  !"  he  replies,  "  that  is  not  its 
nature."  The  eightieth  year  comes,  the  ninetieth, 
the  hundredth,  and  lo,  it  blossoms  !  The  credulous 
mind  might  consider  it  a  miracle  in  the  strictest 
sense — that  is,  something  supernaturally  produced 
on  the  spot.  But  the  botanist  knows  that  the  plant 
blooms  once  a  century  from  natural  causes.  In  like 
manner,  the  course  of  history  runs  for  a  hundred 
years,  two  hundred,  five  hundred,  and  at  the  end  of 
a  millennium  there  is  an  age  of   miracles.      But 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MIRACULOUS.        69 

there  is  nothing  incredibly  miraculous;  in  the  nat- 
ural order  of  events  the  time  has  come  for  the  blos- 
som— that  is  all.  The  world  is  made  to  bloom  for 
a  while  in  accordance  with  the  eternal  purpose  of 
God. 

The  hidden-law  theory,  thus  variously  illus- 
trated, at  least  serves  to  show  that  miracles  are  not 
absolutely  impossible  on  account  of  the  apparent 
fixity  of  natural  laws ;  for  we  do  not  know  what 
all  these  laws  are  or  what  provision  may  have  been 
made  for  rising  emergencies.  But  the  Church  in 
general  does  not  hold  to  so  mechanical  a  view  of 
the  world  as  has  just  been  indicated.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  maintain  that  the  universe  was  so  con- 
stituted as  to  produce  the  miraculous  at  certain 
prearranged  epochs. 

It  is  easier  for  most  men  to  believe  that  God  pro- 
duces the  miracles  at  the  time  by  a  direct  act  of  power. 
Why  should  he  not  be  able  to  do  this  ?  Why  should 
he  not  be  able  to  counteract  natural  law  ?  It  is  being 
done  constantly — not  in  a  way  to  be  termed  miracu- 
lous, because  it  is  an  every-day  occurrence,  but  in  a 
way  which  illustrates  the  miraculous.  The  chemi- 
cal law  of  decay  is  suspended  by  the  preservative 
law  of  salt.  The  law  of  gravity  draws  the  stone 
to  the  earth,  but  you  counteract  that  law  when  you 
lift  it  from  the  ground  and  hurl  it  into  the  air. 
There  is  no  violation  of  law  in  such  instances,  but 
only  a  suspension.  The  watchmaker  can  prevent 
the  wheels  of  a  watch  from  running,  but  let  him 


70  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

loosen  his  hold  upon  the  delicate  machinery  and  it 
runs  again  all  right.  Why  cannot  God  similarly 
interfere  in  his  works,  suspending  or  counteracting 
natural  laws  at  will  ?  He  can,  and  when  he  does 
a  miracle  is  the  result.  Dr.  A.  T.  Pierson  uses 
this  figure  :  "  I  have  a  watch  here  ;  when  wound 
up  it  runs  straight  forward  until  it  needs  rewind- 
ing. .  .  .  Yet  when  I  find  it  is  too  fast  I  move  the 
hands  backward — I  interrupt  the  usual  movement, 
but  I  violate  no  law.  The  watch  could  not  have 
turned  back  its  own  hands  and  corrected  itself,  but 
a  superior  intelligence  interferes  for  a  proper  end. 
.  .  .  As  I  examine  more  minutely  into  the  structure 
of  this  delicate  piece  of  mechanism,  I  observe  a 
remarkable  fact :  the  maker  of  this  watch  has 
made  provision  for  just  such  a  reversal  of  that  law 
by  which  both  minute-  and  hour-hands  move  only 
forward.  He  has  provided  for  a  backward  move- 
ment when  the  intelligent  owner  chooses." 

So  that  miracles  are  possible  to  Omnipotence, 
either  after  the  manner  of  a  higher  law  of  which 
we  at  present  are  ignorant,  or,  more  likely, 
through  the  suspension  and  balancing  and  manip- 
ulation of  laws  already  known,  but  not  known  in 
all  their  wonderful  power  of  combination  to  pro- 
duce results.  Twenty  years  ago  it  would  have 
seemed  a  miracle  for  the  human  voice  to  be  heard 
at  a  distance  of  fifty  or  a  hundred  miles.  But 
there  has  come  such  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of 
electricity  and  sound  that  by  the  telephone  there  can 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MIRACULOUS.        71 

be  vocal  communication  at  ranges  of  distance  once 
deemed  impossible.  Who,  then,  will  limit  the 
Omnipotent  and  Omniscient,  and  say  that  God  can- 
not by  his  perfect  understanding  of  natural  laws  and 
by  his  almighty  power  work  miracles?  "Since," 
says  the  geologist  Dawson,  "  science  itself  enables 
men  to  work  miracles  absolutely  impossible  and 
unintelligible  to  the  ignorant,  we  may  readily  be- 
lieve that  the  Almighty  can  still  more  profoundly 
modify  and  rearrange  his  own  laws  and  forces. 
Viewed  in  this  way,"  adds  this  eminent  scientist, 
"a  miracle  is  a  most  natural  thing,  and  to  be  ex- 
pected in  any  case  where  events  great  and  moment- 
ous in  a  spiritual  sense  are  transpiring."  Gladstone 
in  his  review  of  Robert  Elsmere  has  given  expres- 
sion to  a  similar  thought.  "  There  is,"  he  says, 
"an  extraneous  force  of  will  which  acts  upon  mat- 
ter in  derogation  of  laws  purely  physical,  or  alters 
the  balauce  of  those  laws  among  themselves.  It 
can  be  neither  philosophical  nor  scientific  to  pro- 
claim the  impossibility  of  a  miracle  until  philoso- 
phy or  science  shall  have  determined  a  limit  beyond 
which  this  extraneous  force  of  will,  so  familiar  to 
our  experience,  cannot  act  upon  or  deflect  the  nat- 
ural order."  Even  Huxley,  though  declaring  that 
supernatural  Christianity  is  "doomed  to  fall,"  says, 
"  No  one  is  entitled  to  say  a  priori  that  any  given 
so-called  miraculous  event  is  impossible."  That  is 
a  recent  admission  of  his  ;  so  that  the  possibility  of 
miracles  would  seem  to  be  beyond  controversy. 


72  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

2.  We  come  thus,  in  the  second  place,  to  the 
probability  of  miracles.  This  Huxley  denies  on 
the  ground  of  insufficient  evidence.  We  have  all 
read  Hume's  famous  argument,  which  may  be  stated 
as  follows :  On  the  one  side  there  is  the  evidence  of 
certain  witnesses ;  on  the  other  is  the  testimony  of 
universal  experience  which  declares  the  laws  of  na- 
ture to  be  unalterable.  Those  who  witness  to  the 
miraculous  having  taken  place  are  few  as  compared 
with  the  multitudes  who  testify  to  the  unbroken 
succession  of  natural  laws.  So  that  it  is  a  question 
of  probabilities — it  is  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  or 
several  thousand  saying  they  have  seen  supernatural 
events,  while  millions  upon  millions  have  seen,  and 
so  will  admit,  only  natural  events.  It  is  more 
probable  that  the  few  should  be  wrong  than  the 
many.  Such  is  the  position  taken,  but  it  cannot 
be  sustained.  If  ten  worthy  persons  passing  along 
the  street  should  say  that  they  saw  a  certain  picture 
in  a  store-window,  and  a  hundred  others  should 
unite  in  saying  that  they  did  not  notice  it,  and 
therefore  that  it  could  not  be  there,  we  would  be- 
lieve the  ten  rather  than  the  hundred. 

To  use  a  familiar  illustration :  Suppose  a  people 
living  in  the  tropics  never  to  have  heard  of  ice,  but 
a  half  dozen  of  them,  good,  reliable  men,  take  pas- 
sage northward.  Returning,  they  tell  their  fellow- 
countrymen  that  water  sometimes  becomes  solid,  so 
that  it  can  be  walked  upon.  Improbable  enough, 
those  tropical  people  might  say  ;  it  is  against  nature. 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MIRACULOUS.        73 

Thus  the  ignorant  natives  would  all  be  arraved 
against  the  six  travelers,  and  could  claim  a  prepon- 
derance of  witnesses,  but  they  would  be  wrong  just 
the  same.  What  if  for  eighteen  centuries  no  mira- 
cle lias  been  seen  by  any  who  have  inhabited  this 
earth  ?  That  weighs  as  nothing  against  five  hun- 
dred who  did  witness  miracles  in  the  first  century 
of  the  Christian  era. 

The  miraculous  would  seem  to  be  probable,  in- 
stead of  improbable,  when  we  think  of  the  ends  to 
be  gained.  There  have  been  in  the  course  of  human 
history  occasions  apparently  at  least  requiring  divine 
intervention.  Horace,  the  old  Roman  poet,  had  the 
correct  idea  when  he  said,  "  Let  not  a  god  intervene 
unless  there  be  a  knot  worth  his  untying."  Well, 
there  have  been  just  such  emergencies. 

In  Old-Testament  times  the  great  endeavor  was 
to  establish  the  true  doctrine  of  one  personal  God. 
The  tendency  was  to  deify  the  forces  of  nature,  giv- 
ing gods  innumerable.  How  could  this  polytheism 
be  overcome  by  monotheism?  How  could  people 
be  made  to  believe  in  a  God  over  and  above  nature, 
rather  than  in  numerous  deities  identical  with  na- 
ture in  its  various  aspects  ?  We  have  no  apprecia- 
tion of  the  great  issue  involved.  The  prevailing 
religions  were  polytheistic.  The  whole  atmosphere 
was  unfavorable  to  the  truth  of  one  personal  God. 
The  divine  One  had,  so  to  speak,  to  manifest  him- 
self :  he  could  not  have  gotten  the  attention  without 
miracles.     Not  that  he  performed  them  every  day. 


74  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

There  are  hundreds  of  years  at  a  time  devoid  of  the 
miraculous.  We  forget  that  Bible  history  is  frag- 
nentary,  containing  only  the  striking  epochs.  Even 
in  the  scriptural  history  which  we  have,  while  there 
are  miracles  scattered  along  here  and  there,  they 
abounded  only  at  two  critical  periods  under  the  old 
dispensation  :  in  the  time  of  Moses,  when  the  new 
religion  was  to  be  established,  and  in  the  time  of 
Elijah,  when  it  seemed  likely  to  go  down  before 
idolatry.  God  came  in  with  the  miraculous  at 
both  these  periods,  because  they  were  great  crises 
when  the  true  religion  needed  special  nourishing. 
When  we  reflect  upon  what  was  at  stake,  when  we 
remember  it  was  then  being  determined  whether 
we  to-day  should  be  worshiping  the  God  of  heaven 
or  bowing  down  to  stocks  and  stones,  we  can  see 
the  reasonableness  of  the  divine  intervention. 

The  advent  of  Christ  in  the  new  dispensation 
was  another  great  epoch.  When  we  learn  of  the 
almost  universal  skepticism  that  existed  nineteen 
centuries  ago,  the  old  faiths  everywhere  crumbling, 
and  when  we  read  of  the  shocking  immoralities  that 
were  practiced,  not  secretly,  but  openly,  not  in  the 
slums  of  society,  but  in  the  very  temples  of  worship, 
— when  we  have  knowledge  of  all  this,  and  then  re- 
member that  a  single  individual  who  was  cradled  in 
a  manger,  and  who  as  he  grew  up  worked  at  the  car- 
penter's trade, — when  we  recollect  that  this  one  Per- 
son of  humble  birth  and  training  was  to  revolutionize 
the  world,  we  can  understand  why  the  miraculous 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MIRACULOUS.        75 

should  be  used.  It  is  what  we  should  expect,  aud 
never  could  Christianity  have  become  the  mighty 
power  that  it  is  had  there  not  been  the  supernatural 
to  give  it  impetus  in  the  beginning.  If  there  were 
not  miracles  to  aid  in  its  establishment,  a  miracle  is 
required  to  explain  its  widening  influence  down 
the  ages,  until  now  nothing  else  can  be  compared 
with  it  in  grandeur  of  onward  movement  as  it 
sweeps  in  triumph  round  the  globe.  The  gifted 
author  of  Christianity  and  Science,  Dr.  A.  P.  Pea- 
body,  writes  eloquently  of  this  advance  without 
retrogression  since  the  first  century.  "  What  do  we 
see  since  that  age  ?"  he  asks ;  and  then  answers, 
"  Progress,  but  no  decline.  Dawn,  sunrise,  high 
morning,  but  no  receding  of  the  shadow  on  the  sun- 
dial. Barbaric  irruptions  that  fertilize  when  they 
threaten  to  destroy.  Dark  ages,  like  those  dreary 
spring-days  whose  drenching  rains  are  the  harbinger 
of  all  that  is  gladdening  in  garden,  field  and  orchard 
— ages  during  which  humane  principles  are  taking 
root,  institutions  and  habits  of  charity  and  mercy 
springing  into  being,  slavery  melting  away  and 
vanishing.  There  has  not  been  since  the  Christian 
era  a  century  than  which  we  can  say  that  the  pre- 
ceding century  was  better.  .  .  .  When  we  see  that 
belief  in  such  a  religion,  in  such  a  Saviour,  though 
mingled  with  puerilities,  superstitions  and  absurdi- 
ties, has  proved  the  mightiest  force  in  the  moral 
universe,  alone  not  yielding  to  the  law  of  decline 
and  exhaustion  to  which  all  other  forces  have  sue- 


76  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

climbed,  it  becomes  in  the  highest  degree  probable 
that  mankind  needed  such  a  religion,  such  a  Sav- 
iour ;  and  if  so  the  miracles  that  atteuded  its  pro- 
mulgation and  his  mission  were  in  themselves  ante- 
cedently probable." 

The  miraculous,  then,  is  even  probable,  both  in 
the  old  and  in  the  new  dispensation,  when  we  recol- 
lect that  it  was  a  life-and-death  struggle  between 
monotheism  and  polytheism — between  a  personal 
God  and  deified  nature,  and  when  we  recollect  that 
it  was  a  contest  between  a  pure  Christianity  aud  an 
immoral  skepticism,  and  when  we  see  the  victory 
attained  in  both  these  great  conflicts. 

But  when  the  truth  was  thoroughly  established 
in  each  case,  it  was  left  to  a  natural  development 
and  the  miraculous  was  withdrawn.  Chrysostom 
of  the  fourth  century  (the  "  golden-niouthed,"  as 
he  was  called)  expresses  this  beautifully  when  he 
says :  u  As  .  .  .  a  husbandman,  having  lately  com- 
mitted a  young  tree  to  the  bosom  of  the  earth, 
counts  it  worthy,  being  yet  tender,  of  much  atten- 
tion, on  every  side  fencing  it  round,  protecting  it 
with  stones  and  thorns,  so  that  it  neither  may  be 
torn  up  by  the  winds,  nor  harmed  by  the  cattle,  nor 
injured  by  any  other  injury;  but  when  he  sees  that 
it  is  fast- rooted  and  has  sprung  up  on  high,  he 
takes  away  the  defences,  since  now  the  tree  can 
defend  itself  from  any  such  wrong;  thus  has  it 
been  in  the  matter  of  our  faith.  When  it  was 
newly  planted,  while  it  was  yet  tender,  great  atten- 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MIRACULOUS.        77 

tion  was  bestowed  on  it  on  every  side.  But  after 
it  was  fixed  and  rooted  and  sprung  up  on  high, 
after  it  had  filled  all  the  world,  Christ  .  .  .  took 
away  the  defences."  In  other  words,  the  miracu- 
lous no  longer  hedged  it  round.  Let  us  be  grateful 
that  the  precious  gospel  was  thus  nurtured.  It  was 
planted,  the  Saviour  said,  the  least  of  all  seeds,  but, 
to  paraphrase  from  one  of  the  Psalms,  it  has  taken 
deep  root  and  filled  all  lands.  The  hills  are  cov- 
ered with  the  shadow  of  it,  and  the  boughs  thereof 
are  like  goodly  cedars,  stretching  from  sea  to  sea. 
Verily,  this  cannot  be  the  product  of  natural  devel- 
opment alone.  The  miraculous  is  needed  to  explain 
the  marvelous  growth. 

In  conclusion,  He  who  said,  "  Believe  me  for 
the  very  works'  sake,"  is  the  One  to  whom  are  to 
be  ascribed  the  works  of  creation,  and  these  surely 
witness  to  miraculous  power.  "All  things  were 
made  by  him,"  says  John.  He  therefore  spoke  into 
being;  our  solar  system,  with  its  central  sun  and 
circling  planets  and  revolving  moons.  He  called 
into  existence  each  of  those  other  almost  innumera- 
ble suns,  like  ours  centres  (only  vastly  larger)  around 
which  wheel  other  planetary  bodies  with  their  bright 
satellites.  He  flung  forth  into  boundless  space  that 
mass  of  stars  concerning  which  the  astronomer  Young 
declares,  "  Its  diameter  must  be  as  great  as  twenty  or 
thirty  thousand  light-years — how  much  greater  we 
cannot  even  guess  f  and  concerning  which  also  Proc- 
tor writes,  "  Light  reaches  this  earth  from  unseen  orbs 


78  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

so  far  away  that  the  journey  over  the  vast  abysses 
separating  us  from  them  has  not  been  completed  in 
less  than  millions  of  years."  He  swung  into  their 
vast  orbits  the  colored  suns,  those  blazing  constel- 
lations with  all  the  beautiful  tints  of  the  rain- 
bow. Notwithstanding  this  marvelous  manifesta- 
tion through  the  visible  of  "  his  everlasting  power 
and  divinity/'  we,  creatures  of  the  dust  and  of  a 
day,  stand  up  and  debate  whether  he  can  work  a 
miracle,  whether  he  can  control  what  he  has  made 
with  his  own  hands.  May  the  wonderful  works  of 
creation  lead  us  to  believe  in  the  miraculous  works 
of  the  Lord  of  glory  !  and  may  the  latter  make  us 
believe  in  Him  himself  who  built  the  skies  !  Then 
when  we  come  to  die  there  will  be  no  volume  like 
that  which  has  taught  us  these  things,  and  there 
will  be  no  chapter  like  that  which  contains  our 
text  and  which  contains  the  revelation  of  the  heav- 
enly mansions.  Our  feeling  at  the  dying  hour  will 
be  that  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who,  as  he  neared  his 
end,  asked  Lockhart  to  read  to  him,  and  when  the 
latter  inquired,  "Out  of  what  book?"  the  reply 
was,  "Need  you  ask?  there  is  but  one;"  and  there- 
upon the  Bible  was  brought,  and  the  chapter  read 
and  listened  to  with  delight  was  this  fourteenth  of 
John,  which  says,  "In  my  Father's  house  are  many 
mansions,"  and  which  says,  "  Believe  me  for  the 
very  works'   sake." 


CHAPTER    VI. 

FORMIDABLE   OBJECTIONS  TO   THE  BIBLE. 

"  Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth? 
Declare,  if  thou  hast  understanding. 

#  *  *  #  *  * 

Doubtless,  thou  knowest,  for  thou  wast  then  born, 
And  the  number  of  thy  days  is  great.!" — Job  38 :  4,  21. 

1VTOT  infrequently  there  is  a  person  who  chal- 
-L-*  lenges  the  truthfulness  of  God's  word,  who 
questions  some  of  the  more  marvelous  things  rela- 
ted in  the  Scriptures.  We  will  frankly  consider  cer- 
tain of  the  more  formidable  objections  to  the  Bible, 
and  by  seeing  the  light  which  can  be  thrown  even 
upon  these,  perhaps  we  will  have  our  faith  sufficient- 
ly strengthened  not  to  stumble  at  every  apparent 
obstacle,  or  at  least  we  will  have  learned  not  to 
accept  the  dictum  of  the  infidel  who  thinks  he 
knows  more  of  the  history  of  the  past  than  the  men 
who  lived  therein.  He  has  not  the  least  hesitation 
in  denying  the  occurrence  of  events  which  the  Bible 
vouches  for  through  living  witnesses  of  the  time. 
He  is  perfectly  sure  the  scriptural  narrative  does 
not  correspond  to  the  actual  facts.  Every  once 
in  a  while  he  gets  tripped  up  j  still,  he  keeps  on 

79 


80  THE  BIBLE  VERIFIED. 

impugning  the  statements  of  the  sacred  historians. 
A  little  of  the  modesty  inculcated  by  our  text 
would  be  to  the  advantage  of  the  supercilious 
unbeliever : 

"  Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth  ? 
Declare,  if  thou  hast  understanding. 

****** 
Doubtless,  thou  knowest,  for  thou  wast  then  born, 
And  the  number  of  thy  days  is  great !" 

1.  The  most  brilliant  infidel  of  the  day  describes 
the  Holy  Land  as  "  one-fifth  the  size  of  Illinois — 
a  frightful  country,  covered  with  rocks  and  desola- 
tion. There  never  was  an  agent  in  Chicago  that 
would  not  have  blushed  with  shame  to  have  de- 
scribed that  land  as  flowing  with  milk  and  honey." 
Was,  then,  the  description  thus  given  in  Exodus 
of  Palestine  overdrawn  ?  The  expression,  of  course, 
was  a  poetic  one  to  indicate  great  fruitfulness.  The 
Roman  poet  Ovid,  who  died  during  the  lifetime  of 
Christ,  has  a  similar  idea  when  he  writes  thus  of 
the  Golden  Age : 

"  Here  rivers  of  milk,  there  rivers  of  nectar,  were  flowing, 
And   from   the  green   of  the   oaks   the  yellow  honey   was 
dropping." 

But  the  trouble  is,  that  the  Holy  Land  is  singularly 
barren,  stony  and  unproductive.  That  is,  however, 
no  evidence  that  it  has  always  been  so.  For  one 
thing,  the  timber  has  been  all  cut  down,  and  the 
bad   results   of  that   we   of  modern   times  know. 


FORMIDABLE  OBJECTIONS.  81 

Indeed,  governments  are  now  offering  premiums  for 
the  planting  of  trees,  and  New  York  is  discussing 
the  necessity  of  preserving  the  vast  forests  of  the 
Adirondack's  if  the  Empire  State  is  not  to  lose  its 
fertility.  Thus  the  present  sterility  of  Palestine 
can  be  accouuted  for;  the  trees  are  largely  gone. 
Besides,  there  are  on  the  hillsides  ruins  showing 
that  anciently  terraces  were  made  use  of  for  the 
better  cultivation  of  the  land.  That  theory,  says 
the  objector,  may  be  plausible  enough,  and  may  be 
correct,  but  is  there  any  al)solute  proof  that  the 
soil  was  once  productive?  Yes,  the  Bible.  But 
its  statements  are  denied,  although  why  this  should 
be  is  not  exactly  clear.  Why  will  some  admit  at 
once  the  truth  of  what  pagans  write  ?  Are  they  so 
much  more  trustworthy  than  holy  men  of  old  ? 

But  since  our  infidels  prefer  other  than  scriptural 
authorities,  they  shall  be  satisfied.  Tacitus,  of  the 
end  of  the  first  and  of  the  beginning  of  the  second 
century,  says  expressly  of  Palestine :  "  The  soil  is 
rich."  Josephus,  a  contemporary  of  the  apostles 
says  of  Galilee  that  the  "soil  is  universally  rich 
and  fruitful.  .  .  .  Moreover,  the  cities  lie  here  very 
thick,  and  the  very  many  villages  there  are  here 
are  everywhere  so  full  of  people,  by  the  richness  of 
their  soil,  that  the  very  least  of  them  contain  above 
fifteen  thousand  inhabitants.  ...  It  supplies  men 
with  the  principal  fruits,  with  grapes  and  figs  con- 
tinually, during  ten  months  of  the  year."  A 
Chicago  land-agent  would  not  need  to  blush  much 


82  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

over  such  a  possession.     Nay,  he  could  put  up  his 
posters  that  it  does   actually  flow  with    milk  and 
honey,  for  Josephus  goes  on  to  observe  of  Judsea 
and  Samaria :    "  By   reason   also   of   the   excellent 
grass  they  have,  their  cattle  yield  more  milk  than 
do  those  in  other  places."    Then  if  that  agent  could 
have  only  controlled  the  land   in  the  vicinity  of 
Jericho,  he  could  have  advertised,  on  the  authority 
of  Josephus,  that  "  it  will  not  be  easy  to  light  on 
any  climate  in  the  habitable  earth  that  can  well  be 
compared  to  it ;"  while  he  could  have  also  quoted 
from    the   Jewish    writer :    "  This   country    withal 
produces   honey   from   bees."      Milk   and   honey ! 
Yet  our  smooth-tongued  infidel,  who  knows  more 
of    the   past    than    the    people    who    lived    then, 
says,  "  There  never  was  an  agent  in  Chicago  that 
would  not  have  blushed  with  shame  to  have  de- 
scribed that  land  as  flowing  with  milk  and  honey." 
This  is  only  a  sample  of  the  way  in  which  historical 
facts  are  set  aside  by  the  superficial  and  unscholarly 
infidelity  which  is  making  so  much  noise  through 
the  press  and   from    the   platform.     Even    if  the 
Bible   cannot  always   be  immediately  verified    by 
secular  authorities,  that  is  no  reason  why  we  should 
pronounce  it  false.     We  do  not  know  everything ; 
our  age  is   not   so   great   that  we   have   personal 
knowledge  of   centuries  ago;    we  were   not   then 
born. 

2.  There  is  in  Old-Testament  history  a  second 
more  serious  difficulty,  and  that  is  the  standing  still 


FORMIDABLE  OBJECTIONS.  83 

of  the  sun  and  moon  at  the  command  of  Joshua  to 
give  him  time  to  complete  his  victory.  With  our 
lack  of  knowledge  we  cannot  declare  this  to  be  im- 
possible. We  were  not  there  and  cannot  speak  with 
authority.  It  may  be  that  the  language  is  figura- 
tive. We  speak  of  the  sun  rising  and  setting, 
though  it  does  neither.  Or  perhaps  the  words  in 
Joshua  are  a  poetic  way  of  saying  that  it  was  a 
good  day's  work;  what  ordinarily  would  have  re- 
quired two  days  was  accomplished  in  one  by  the 
help  of  Jehovah,  who  lengthened  the  day  in  results 
if  not  literally.  This  interpretation  receives  some 
sanction  when  we  come  to  read  the  sacred  record, 
and  find  that  the  words  which  give  us  trouble  are 
a  poetical  quotation  from  what  is  termed  "  the  book 
of  Jasher."  Joshua  prayed  for  time  thoroughly 
to  conquer  the  enemy,  and  so  favorable  were  the 
accompanying  circumstances  that  the  victory  was 
complete  before  the  sun  went  down.  If  now  a 
poet,  Jasher,  chose  to  represent  the  sun  as  stand- 
ing still,  it  was  a  beautiful  thought,  and  naturally 
would  be  incorporated  into  the  historical  account 
of  the  battle.  Homer  makes  Agamemnon  to  pray 
to  Jove : 

"  Let  not  the  sun  go  down  and  night  come  on 
Ere  I  shall  lay  the  halls  of  Priam  waste." 

That  was  poetry,  which  meant  that  he  wanted 
victory  that  day.  This  is  one  explanation  which 
really  does  away  with  the  miracle,  but  most  hold 


84  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

that  there  was  a  miraculous  lengthening  of  the  day  . 

for   Joshua.     It    is    not,    however,  very  generally 

thought  that  the  earth  stopped  in   its  revolution. 

If  it  did,  the  way  in  which  the  phenomenon  would 

be  described  would  be  that  the  sun  stood  still,  and 

not  that  the  earth  halted  in  its  revolving,  for  we 

say  the   sun   rises  and   sets,   although  strictly   we 

ought  to  say  the  earth  rolls  round  into  the  light 

and  out  of  it  again,  making  day  and  night.     There 

is  no  difficulty,  therefore,  in  the  fact  that  the  sun 

was   said   to   stand   still    (it   was   using    language 

popularly,  just  as  we  do),  but  the  difficulty  is,  How 

could  the  earth  have  been   arrested  in  its  diurnal 

motion  without   throwing   all  off  its   surface,  and 

without  a  shock  to  the  whole  solar  system?     Of 

course  infinite  Power  could  hold  everything  in  its 

place,  and  could  prevent  any  catastrophe,  but  it  is 

more  natural  to  suppose  that  the  desired  end  was 

accomplished  by  less  violent  means.     We   are  all 

acquainted  with   the    laws    of  refraction.     In    the 

mirage,  for  instance,  distant  scenes  ordinarily  out 

of  sight  are  lifted  into  view.     How  ?     There  is  a 

modification  of  the  atmosphere,  and    the    rays    of 

light  are  so  bent  as  to  fall  upon  our  vision  even 

over  an  intervening  obstacle.     This  is  not  theory, 

but  an  atmospherical  fact  which  has  been  repeatedly 

observed.     Now,  what  if  the  sun  did  actually  set 

when  Joshua  was  fighting  his  battle?     The  air  may 

have  been  so  changed  that  the  rays  were  refracted 

over  the  hills  between,  so  that  the  sun  would  seem 


FORMIDABLE  OBJECTIONS.  85 

to  be  in  the  open  sky.  In  that  way  could  the  day 
be  lengthened.  That  there  was  such  a  day  seems 
the  more  probable  when  we  are  told  that  there  is  a 
Chinese  tradition  of  a  day  double  the  usual  length. 
Then  there  is  the  familiar  Greek  fable,  that  the 
sun  was  once  persuaded  by  a  rash  boy  of  his  to  let 
him  drive  the  flaming  chariot  across  the  heavens, 
and  the  result  was  that  the  youth  was  run  away 
with,  and  the  fiery  steeds  rushed  up  and  down  the 
skies,  not  reaching  the  western  gates  till  long  after 
the  usual  time.  That  seems  to  be  the  mythological 
way  of  stating  that  there  has  been  one  day  when 
the  sun  was  later  than  usual  in  setting.  Who, 
therefore,  shall  assert  that  the  sun  did  not  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  stand  still  for  Joshua?  We 
were  not  there,  we  were  not  born  over  three  millen- 
niums ago,  and  in  our  ignorance  we  will  show  some 
wisdom  by  not  denying  what  both  tradition  and 
Scripture  declare.  At  any  rate,  the  strange  phenom- 
enon is  capable  of  a  poetical  and  even  scientific 
explanation. 

3.  In  passing  let  me  merely  allude  to  the  much- 
discredited  story  of  Jonah.  Possibly,  the  narrative, 
if  fictitious,  could  be  used  for  the  moral  instruction 
conveyed  by  it  in  the  Bible,  for  the  Lord  himself 
taught  by  parables,  by  stories ;  but  we  can  scarcely 
resist  the  conviction  that  Christ  refers  to  the  ex- 
perience of  the  prophet  of  Nineveh  as  historical, 
for  Jonah  and  Solomon  and  the  queen  of  the  south 
are  spoken  of  together.     Besides,  the  great  Teacher 


8G  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

makes  the  entombment  in  the  sea-monster  typical 
of  his  own  three  days  spent  in  the  grave ;  and  the 
parallel  is  not  very  exact  or  impressive  if  both  are 
not  facts.  We  believe  in  the  Lord's  burial  and  res- 
urrection, and  this  is  the  greater  miracle  of  the 
two.  Nor  is  the  lesser  miracle,  to  my  mind,  so  very 
incredible.  There  are  marine  animals  large  enough 
to  swallow  a  man.  In  the  capacious  stomach  of  a 
dog-fish  a  horse  has  been  found  whole,  and  likewise 
a  warrior  in  full  armor.  These  are  not  fictions. 
It  is  an  authenticated  case,  that  of  the  sailor  who 
in  1758  was  swallowed  without  mutilation  by  a 
leviathan  of  the  deep.  The  only  thing  miraculous 
about  the  scriptural  story  is  the  preservation  of  the 
prophet  alive  under  the  circumstances.  And  why 
should  this  be  regarded  a  thing  incredible  with 
God,  who  in  the  works  of  creation  and  in  other 
recorded  miracles  that  are  generally  accepted  per- 
forms still  greater  wonders  ?  If  you  impeach  the 
testimony  of  God's  word  as  to  the  sign  of  the 
prophet  Jonah,  there  must  at  least  be  admitted  the 
ironical  truthfulness  of  the  scriptural  representation 
of  such  as  you  : 

"  Doubtless,  thou  knowest,  for  thou  wast  then  born, 
And  the  number  of  thy  days  is  great  I" 

» 
4.  One  more  difficulty,  and  that  is  in  relation  to 
the  Flood.     There  is  the  witticism  about  the  venti- 
lation of  the  ark  with  its  one  little  window ;  but  a 
scholar   would    never    have    made    the   egregious 


FORMIDABLE  OBJECTIONS.  87 

blunder  of  supposing  that  there  was  only  one  small 
aperture  for  the  admission  of  light  and  air.  The 
Hebrew  word  implies  that  there  was  a  system  of 
windows,  running,  it  would  seem,  just  beneath  the 
roof,  the  whole  length  of  the  ark,  and  when  Noah 
opened  the  window  for  the  raven  and  dove,  a  dif- 
ferent word  is  used  (as  the  Revised  Version,  though 
not  the  old,  indicates),  showing  that  this  was  a  sin- 
gle compartment  in  the  larger  window  or  "  light." 
Nor  is  the  objection  that  the  ark  was  not  large  enough 
for  all  the  different  animals  of  any  force,  when  we 
understand  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  there 
was  a  universal  deluge.  To  be  sure,  we  read  of 
"all  flesh"  being  destroyed,  of  the  waters  covering 
"  all  the  high  mountains  that  were  under  the  whole 
heaven,"  but  we  also  read  of  a  decree  going  out 
from  Caesar  Augustus  "  that  all  the  world  should 
be  enrolled"  in  the  census  of  the  first  century. 
As  the  latter  means  simply  the  Roman  empire,  all 
the  world  in  which  Augustus  had  any  interest,  so 
the  former  may  mean  the  world  so  far  as  Noah  was 
concerned.  Such  general  expressions  need  not  be 
taken  literally,  any  more  than  we  are  when  we  say, 
"  Everybody  is  going  to  such  and  such  a  place." 
The  ark,  which  was  a  little  larger  than  the  Great 
Eastern,  may  not  have  been  capable  of  holding  two 
of  every  species  around  the  entire  globe,  but  all  the 
animals  (two  and  two  of  them)  of  the  land  which 
we  may  suppose  to  have  been  swept  by  a  partial 
flood  may  have  had  sufficient  room.     But  is  there 


88  THE  BIBLE  VERIFIED. 

any  evidence  (outside  of  the  Bible)  of  even  a  local 
flood  of  any  great  extent?  Yes;  almost  all  nations 
have  traditions  of  a  destructive  deluge.  As  the 
descendants  of  Noah  multiplied  and  were  dispersed 
over  the  earth,  the  memory  of  the  great  catastrophe 
would  naturally  be  passed  down  the  ages,  although, 
of  course,  variations  would  arise.  There  is,  accord- 
ingly, the  account  of  Berosus,  in  mauy  respects 
resembling  the  scriptural  narrative.  The  Chinese 
have  a  story  that  all  the  world  was  once  drowned 
except  three  emperors.  The  Greeks  had  their  Deu- 
calion, who  built  a  ship  in  which  he  and  his  wife 
were  saved  from  an  inundation  which  destroyed  all 
the  rest  of  mankind.  Among  the  American  Indians 
are  various  traditions,  one  of  which  makes  it  the 
humming-bird  that  returns  with  a  twig  in  its  beak. 
Now,  all  this  proves  that  there  must  have  been  some 
original  fact  which  gave  rise  to  the  different  stories. 
Nor  is  the  deluge  an  unlikely  event,  looking  at  it 
from  a  geological  standpoint.  Only  as  long  ago  as 
"June,  1819,"  says  the  geologist  Lyell,  "the  sea 
flowed  in  by  the  eastern  mouth  of  the  Indus,  and 
in  a  few  hours  converted  a  tract  of  land  two  thou- 
sand square  miles  in  area  into  an  inland  sea."  We 
are  familiar  with  geological  elevations  and  depres- 
sions of  land.  Winchell,  in  his  Sketches  of  Creation, 
says  that  "in  1822  the  entire  coast  of  Chili  was 
elevated  to  a  height  varying  from  two  to  seven  feet 
— an  extent  equal  to  the  area  of  New  England  and 
New  York  having  been  lifted  up  bodily."     The 


FORMIDABLE  OBJECTIONS.  89 

same  geologist  declares  that  "a  depression  in  the 
valley  of  the  Lower  Mississippi  of  only  three  hun- 
dred feet  would  admit  the  waters  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  up  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio."  When 
Dawson,  even  from  the  scientific  standpoint,  tells  us 
of  geological  deluges  submerging  the  plains  of 
Europe  under  one  thousand  feet  of  water,  and 
informs  us  that  the  earth  since  the  advent  of  man 
has  taken  at  least  one  such  "plunge-bath  before 
attaining  its  modern  fixity,"  we  need  not  be  very 
skeptical  about  a  Bible  flood,  partial  or  universal ; 
we  need  not  in  the  least  discredit  that  of  the  time 
of  Noah.     God  very  properly  says, 

"Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth  ? 
Declare,  if  thou  hast  understanding. 

*  *  *  *  *  # 

Doubtless,  thou  knowest,  for  thou  wast  then  born, 
And  the  number  of  thy  days  is  great !" 

We  were  not  present  when  the  great  deep  in  the 
time  of  Noah  is  said  to  have  been  broken  up,  and 
we  have  no  right  to  deny  what  is  written  as  fact, 
what  is  sustained  by  universal  tradition  and  what 
is  rendered  probable  by  geologic  science. 

In  conclusion,  whether  we  believe  in  the  delude 
or  not,  there  is  coming  the  flood  of  death  which 
will  be  to  each  of  us  a  terrible  reality.  There  is  no 
getting  around  the  waters  of  that  Jordan,  and  un- 
happy shall  we  be  if  this  mighty  tide  sweep  us  out 
into  eternity  while  we  are  scoffing.     We  will  then 


90  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

wish  to  be  in  one  ark,  and  that  is  the  ark  of  salva- 
tion. Seek  safety  in  time,  for  there  is  such  a  thing 
as  being  too  late. 

"  Come  to  the  ark,  ere  yet  the  flood 
Your  lingering  steps  oppose; 
Come,  for  the  door  which  open  stood 
Is  now  about  to  close." 


CHAPTER   VII. 

INCIDENTAL    CONFIRMATIONS    OF    THE   BIBLE. 

"  Behold,  the  ships  also,  though  they  are  so  great,  and  are 
driven  by  rough  winds,  are  yet  turned  about  by  a  very 
small  rudder,  whither  the  impulse  of  the  steersman  willeth." 
— James  3  : 4. 

THE  apostle  is  arguing  against  setting  up  to  be 
"  teachers  "  of  divine  things.  He  implies  that 
special  qualifications  are  required  for  the  respon- 
sible position  of  making  known  the  will  of  God. 
Self-constituted  teachers  are  sure  to  make  mistakes 
from  which  the  inspired  are  free.  "If  any  man," 
says  the  context,  "  stumbleth  not  in  word,  the  same 
is  a  perfect  man."  "  The  tongue,"  James  says,  "  is 
a  little  member,"  but  it  can  easily  make  a  slip. 
The  truth  of  this  we  recognize  in  the  oft-used  Latin 
phrase,  lapsus  linguae,  a  slip  of  the  tongue.  Now, 
the  teachers  whom  God  inspired  to  give  us  a  perfect 
rule  of  faith  and  practice,  to  give  us  the  Scriptures, 
have  not  stumbled  even  in  wrord.  A  slight  inac- 
curacy, a  slip  of  the  tongue  as  to  any  essential  fact, 
would  be  an  impeachment  of  the  veracity  of  the 
Bible,  but  such  we  do  not  find.  If  we  did,  it 
would  throw  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  out  of 

91 


92  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

the  course  of  the  divinely  given,  and  would  leave 
us  all  at  sea  religiously.  On  the  other  hand,  a  very 
trifling  mark  of  truthfulness  confirms  our  faith  in 
the  infallibility  of  Holy  Writ,  and  the  more  indi- 
rect and  casual  the  proof  the  stronger  it  is.  Pro- 
fessor Blunt  in  his  Undesigned  Coincidences,  and 
Paley  in  his  Horce  Paulinos,  or  Hours  with  Paul, 
have  brought  together  a  great  many  incidental 
confirmations  of  the  Bible.  A  few  of  these,  with 
others  that  have  come  to  me  in  a  personal  investi- 
gation of  the  subject,  will  be  passed  before  you 
for  your  consideration,  and,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  for 
your  edification. 

The  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
have  come  down  the  ages  like  ships;  they  have 
been  "driven  by  rough  winds,"  they  have  been 
subjected  to  severe  gales  of  criticism;  but  when 
they  have  seemed  about  to  be  lost  on  the  rocks  of 
skepticism  and  infidelity,  they  have  been  righted  to 
their  course  by  a  subtle  impulse  given  at  the  hand 
of  the  great  Steersman.  "Though  they  are  so 
great,"  yet  again  and  again  they  have  been  recov- 
ered to  the  faith  of  God's  people  by  some  unde- 
signed agreement  which  has  been  made  to  appear 
between  different  ones  of  the  sacred  writers,  by 
some  unimportant  allusion  which  has  been  found 
to  be  true  to  fact.  Hence  the  significance  of  our 
text  as  applied  to  the  Scriptures :  "  Behold,  the 
ships  also,  though  they  are  so  great,  and  are  driven 
by  rough  winds,  are  yet  turned  about  by  a  very 


INCIDENTAL   CONFIRMATIONS.  93 

small  rudder,  whither  the  impulse  of  the  steersman 
willeth."  Undesigned  coincidences  will  at  this 
time  be  made  repeatedly  to  be  the  very  small  rud- 
der which  God  uses  to  bring  back  the  Scriptures 
from  where  some  would  have  them  driven  by  con- 
trary winds. 

1.  First,  let  us  look  at  the  Old  Testament. 
When  Joseph  was  sold  by  his  brethren  it  was  to  a 
caravan,  we  read  in  Genesis,  "  bearing  spicery,  and 
balm  and  myrrh,  going  to  carry  it  down  to  Egypt." 
There  we  see  a  mere  allusion  to  a  species  of  Orien- 
tal traffic  carried  on  with  the  ancient  Egyptians. 
There  was  no  special  occasion  for  mentioning  the 
spicery  that  was  being  conveyed  to  Egypt ;  the  sale 
of  a  brother  was  the  main  subject.  But  this  small 
incident,  to  which  only  a  passing  reference  is  made, 
fits  in  with  the  fact  that  Egypt  needed  a  great  deal 
of  this  kind  of  merchandise,  and  that  that  country, 
therefore,  was  a  probable  and  profitable  market  for 
balm  from  the  East.  Years  afterward  Joseph,  as 
we  are  informed,  "  embalmed  "  his  father,  and  it  is 
implied  that  embalming  was  an  Egyptian  custom, 
while  centuries  subsequently  we  read  in  the  Gospel 
of  John  about  Nicodemus  for  the  burial  of  Jesus 
"  bringing  a  mixture  of  myrrh  and  aloes,  about  a 
hundred  pound  weight."  If  a  hundred  pounds 
were  required  for  a  single  body,  of  course  Egypt 
with  its  practice  of  embalming  was  a  great  market 
for  spicery.  So  remarkably  does  an  indirect  allu- 
sion in  Genesis  tally  with  fact.     The  casual  refer- 


94  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

ence  to  spicery  is  the  small  rudder  keeping  the  ship 
to  the  straight  track  of  truthfulness. 

Take,  again,  that  great  biblical  event  of  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Jordan.  When  did  it  occur?  Accord- 
ing to  the  book  of  Joshua,  it  was  (and  it  is  stated 
parenthetically  as  being  aside  from  the  chief  thing 
to  be  narrated)  when  "  Jordan  overfloweth  all  its 
banks  all  the  time  of  harvest."  The  time  is  further 
indicated  as  being  "  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  first 
month."  That  we  know  from  other  sources  to 
have  been  four  days  before  the  Passover.  But  the 
Israelites  left  Egypt  at  the  Passover,  just  after  the 
ten  plagues,  one  of  them  being  the  hail  by  which  it 
is  said  in  Exodus  "  the  flax  and  the  barley  were 
smitten."  Now,  three  days  before  the  crossing 
of  the  Jordan  spies  were  sent  into  Jericho,  where 
they  were  hidden  by  Rahab,  and  how?  We 
read  in  Joshua  that  she  "  hid  them  with  the  stalks 
of  flax,  which  she  had  laid  in  order  upon  the  roof." 
The  smiting  of  the  flax  with  hail  in  one  book  cor- 
responds with  the  hiding  under  flax  in  the  other, 
and  that,  too,  though  neither  writer  was  speaking 
of  flax  directly,  but  the  one  was  describing  a  plague 
and  the  other  the  passage  of  the  Jordan,  both  which 
events  occurred  at  or  near  the  Passover  or  harvest. 
They  both  happened,  we  say,  to  mention  flax  at 
its  full  development,  and  thus  they  unconsciously 
strengthen  each  other  and  our  confidence  in  their 
veracity.  They  are  mutually  corroborative,  and  in 
the  most  incidental  manner.     The  very  indirectness 


INCIDENTAL  CONFIRMATIONS.  95 

of  this  kind  of  proof  is  what  confirms  our  faith.  It 
is  the  very  small  rudder  which  turns  the  whole 
ship,  which  recovers  to  our  assured  belief  the  whole 
Old  Testament  when  driven  by  the  rough  winds 
of  unbelief. 

Again,  we  read  in  Numbers  that  the  spies  sent 
by  Moses  into  Canaan  saw  "  men  of  great  stature," 
"sons  of  Anak."  Joshua,  however,  it  is  said  in 
the  book  bearing  his  name,  "  cut  off  the  Anakim," 
"  utterly  destroyed  them."  But  pass  down  to  the 
time  of  David,  and  we  learn  from  Samuel  that  the 
giants  had  not  all  been  exterminated,  for  "  Goliath 
of  Gath  "  defied  the  armies  of  the  living  God. 
Turn  back  to  Joshua,  and  see  if  they  did  entirely 
annihilate  the  Auakim,  and  see  if  you  can  account 
for  "Goliath  of  Gath."  Certainly  you  can,  for 
just  beyond  what  has  already  been  quoted  it  is 
said,  "  There  was  none  of  the  Anakim  left  in  the 
land  of  the  children  of  Israel :  only  in  Gaza,  in 
Gath,  and  in  Ashdod,  did  some  remain."  Thus 
do  we  have  three  independent  witnesses — Moses, 
Joshua  and  Samuel — agreeing,  though  they  mani- 
festly do  not  plan  for  the  agreement.  This  is  a 
little  item  to  be  taken  into  account  in  the  considera- 
tion of  so  great  a  subject,  but  it  is  none  the  less 
important  for  that  reason.  A  straw  shows  which 
way  the  wind  blows.  A  very  small  rudder  deter- 
mines the  course  of  a  great  ship.  A  very  minor 
incident  helps  to  establish  the  whole  Old  Testa- 
ment in  our  convictions. 


96  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

At  the  preaching  of  Jonah,  to  proceed  in  further 
illustration  of  our  topic,  there  was  such  repentance 
that  we  read  in  the  prophet  there  were  "covered 
with  sackcloth  both  man  and  beast"  A  singular 
and  an  improbable  way  of  mourning  that  was,  to 
have  the  very  beasts  in  the  array  of  mourning.  Is 
not  the  whole  narrative  of  the  preaching  to  the 
Ninevites  proven  a  myth  by  this  strange  circum- 
stance which  is  related  as  a  fact  ?  It  might  seem 
so  until  we  take  up  a  pagan  writer,  Plutarch,  by 
whom  we  are  informed  that  at  the  death  of  Pelop- 
idas  his  soldiers  "cut  off  their  horses'  manes  and 
their  own  hair ;"  while  at  the  death  of  a  very  dear 
friend  Alexander  the  Great  was  so  overcome  "  that 
to  express  his  sorrow  he  immediately  ordered  the 
manes  and  tails  of  all  his  horses  and  mules  to  be 
cut."  Thus  does  a  pagan  writer,  without  intending 
it,  render  credible  the  sacred  writer,  who  says  that 
the  king  of  Nineveh,  as  an  expression  of  repent- 
ance before  God,  ordered  the  very  flocks  and  herds 
to  be  "covered  with  sackcloth."  This  is  a  little 
incident,  but  it  confirms  the  truthfulness  of  Jonah, 
that  most  bitterly  assailed  of  all  the  books  of  the 
Bible,  and  it  thus  assists  in  establishing  the  entire 
Old  Testament.  It  is  the  very  small  rudder  which 
turns  the  whole  ship. 

Another  example:  David  in  adversity  experienced 
kindness  from  an  aged  Gileadite,  and  by  way  of  re- 
ward he  took  into  the  royal  favor  a  son  of  his  friend 
by  the  name  of  "  Chimham."     There  is  only  the 


INCIDENTAL   CONFIRMATIONS.  97 

barest  allusion  to  it  in  Samuel  and  Kings.  Exactly 
what  David  did  for  Chimham  it  is  not  said,  but 
he  probably  gave  him  au  estate  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  court.  The  name,  however,  does  not  appear  for 
four  hundred  years.  May  it  not  have  been  all  a 
fable  about  Chimham  experiencing  the  royal  favor? 
Was  it  real  history  or  was  it  a  beautiful  romance  ? 
A\re  pass  down  four  centuries  and  we  find  Jeremiah 
prophesying.  He  is  describing  a  time  of  peril,  and 
he  is  telling  of  some  Jews  trying  to  escape  from 
the  captivity  which  came,  and  he  uses  this  lan- 
guage :  "  And  they  departed,  and  dwelt  in  Geruth 
(margin,  the  lodging-place  of)  Chimham,  which  is 
by  Bethlehem,  to  go  to  enter  into  Egypt,  because 
of  the  Chaldeans."  Thus  does  it  appear  that  Chim- 
ham was  an  actual  person,  that  he  really  had  expe- 
rienced the  royal  favor  by  having  an  estate  settled 
upon  him — an  estate  which  bore  his  name  four  hun- 
dred years  after  the.  event.  What  is  more,  the 
prophet  was  evidently  not  trying  to  coufirm  the 
earlier  narrative,  for  the  name  of  Chimham  comes 
in  only  incidentally  as  a  stopping-place  for  some 
Jewish  refugees  on  the  way  to  Egypt.  So  that  bv 
a  dark  hint  to  an  event  which  transpired  four  cen- 
turies before,  by  a  hint  which  not  one  reader  in  a 
thousand  would  notice,  in  so  indirect  a  way  is  the 
word  of  God  confirmed,  and  the  confirmation  is  all 
the  stronger  because  entirely  undesigned. 

Again,  we  read  in  Second  Kings,  "  Now  Mesha, 
king  of  Moab,  was  a  sheepmaster;  and  he  rendered 

7 


98  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

unto  the  king  of  Israel  the  wool  of  an  hundred 
thousand  lambs,  and  of  an  hundred  thousand  rams." 
But  this  Moabite  king  rebelled  ;  he  determined  to 
have  relief  from  the  oppressive  tribute  imposed. 
We  learn  further  from  the  scriptural  narrative  that 
he  was  overwhelmingly  defeated,  but  that  he  rallied 
in  a  last  stronghold,  and  that  there  he  made  to  his 
god,  upon  the  wall  in  full  sight  of  the  besieging 
Israelites,  the  costly  burnt-offering  of  his  first-born 
son.  And  what  was  the  result?  The  biblical  an- 
swer is,  "  And  there  was  great  wrath  against  Israel : 
and  they  departed  from  him,  and  returned  to  their 
own  land."  That  is,  the  Israelites,  horrified  at  the 
human,  and  at  the  same  time  inhuman,  sacrifice,  re- 
linquished the  siege  for  fear  of  a  divine  judgment 
upon  them  as  being  indirectly  the  cause  of  the  great 
wickedness  committed,  and  the  Moabite  monarch 
thus  gained  his  end,  the  independence  of  his  king- 
dom, and,  as  he  believed  and  as  it  seemed,  through 
the  divine  favor  secured  by  the  open  sacrifice  of  his 
son.  This  all  seems  very  improbable,  does  it  not? 
Happening,  too,  nine  hundred  years  before  Christ, 
it  becomes  the  more  doubtful,  even  if  it  is  related 
in  the  Bible.  But  there  has  come  in  these  recent 
times  a  remarkable  confirmation  of  the  scriptural 
story.  In  1868  a  traveler  in  the  ancient  territory 
of  the  Moabites  came  upon  a  stone  three  feet  nine 
inches  long,  two  feet  four  inches  wide  and  one  foot 
two  inches  thick.  This  is  the  famous  Moabite 
Stone,  one  of  the  most  marvelous  discoveries  in  this 


INCIDENTAL  CONFIRMATIONS.  99 

century  of  wonders.  It  is  now  in  Paris,  and 
what  does  it  contain  ?  An  inscription  made  by  the 
Moabite  kins;  himself  nine  centuries  before  the 
Christian  era,  and  establishing  the  truthfulness  of 
the  inspired  record.  "  I,  Mesha,"  is  the  reading  in 
chiseled  and  imperishable  characters,  "  erected  this 
stone  to  Chemosh,  .  .  .  for  he  saved  me  from 
all  despoilers  and  let  me  see  my  desire  upon  all  my 
enemies."  And  who  were  among  his  enemies? 
The  Moabite  Stone  replies,  the  "  king  of  Israel, 
who  oppressed  Moab  many  days."  Thus  are  the 
very  stones  crying  out  in  defence  of  God's  word 
and  of  our  holy  religion. 

Still,  again :  profane  historians  relate  that  the 
capture  of  Babylon  took  place  under  Xabonnedus, 
not  under  Belshazzar,  whom  Daniel  names.6  Skep- 
tics used  to  enlarge  upon  this  discrepancy,  as  well 
as  upon  other  contradictions.  But  a  few  years  ago 
in  the  vicinity  of  Babylon  was  found  a  cylinder 
which  gave  the  information  that  Xabonnedus  had 
a  son  by  the  name  of  Belshazzar  who  was  associated 
with  the  father  in  the  government.  A  complete 
harmony  is  thus  established  between  the  profane  his- 
torian and  sacred  narrator,  while  at  the  same  time  a 
casual  remark  of  the  latter  is  explained.  Belshazzar, 
according  to  Daniel,  had  promised  that  the  reader 
of  the  handwriting  on  the  wall  should  be  "third 
ruler  in  the  kingdom."  Why  not  second,  instead 
of  third  ?  The  association  of  two  monarchs,  Na- 
bonnedus    and    Belshazzar,    in    ruling   clears    up 


100  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

what  was  long  a  mystery.  The  inspired  writer 
casually  remarks  that  the  reader  of  the  handwriting 
was  to  be  made  "  third  "  in  the  kingdom,  and  no 
one  knew  why  third  till  a  cylinder  a  little  while  ago 
revealed  the  secret  by  its  allusion  to  the  Babylonian 
throne  being  occupied  by  father  and  son  jointly, 
who  of  course  would  be  first  and  second,  although 
Daniel  directly  mentions  only  one  of  the  two.  We 
could  go  on  indefinitely  giving  specifications  of  the 
incidental  confirmation  of  the  Old  Testament.  Re- 
peatedly, a  very  small  rudder  rights  in  our  faith 
the  ship  of  God's  word  when  driven  by  the  rough 
winds  of  skeptical  assault. 

2.  We  have,  in  the  second  place,  just  as  striking 
confirmations  of  the  New  Testament.  Does  Paul 
say  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  "  I  am  an  am- 
bassador in  chains  "  ?  The  historian  in  Acts  makes 
him  say,  "  I  am  bound  with  this  chain. "  Does 
the  historic  narrative  say,  "Saul  laid  waste  the 
Church "  ?  He  confirms  this  when  he  writes  his 
letter  to  the  Galatians,  "Beyond  measure  I  per- 
secuted the  Church  of  God."  Does  Luke  write 
that  Timothy  was  "  the  sou  of  a  Jewess  "  ?  Paul 
intimates  (and  an  intimation  is  stronger  proof  some- 
times than  a  direct  assertion)  the  same  thing  when 
in  his  Epistle  to  Timothy  he  says,  "  From  a  babe 
thou  hast  known  the  sacred  writings."  To  be  sure, 
he  had  known  the  Scriptures  from  childhood  if  he 
had  a  Jewish  mother.  The  words  of  Luke  and 
Paul  in    this   way,  without   design,    are  mutually 


INCIDENTAL   CONFIRMATIONS.  101 

confirmatory.  Does  Luke  affirm  that  the  Sadducees 
say,  "  There  is  no  resurrection,  neither  angel,  nor 
spirit "  ?  Josephus,  who  was  born  37  A.  D.,  and 
thus  belonged  to  the  first  century  of  the  Christian 
era,  says,  "The  doctrine  of  the  Sadducees  is 
this,  that  souls  die  with  the  bodies."  Thus  Jew 
and  Christian  agree,  and  that,  too,  without  col- 
lusion. 

Quite  aside  from  his  main  purpose,  the  writer  of 
the  Acts  speaks  of  "  the  Beautiful  Gate  of  the  tem- 
ple." The  Jewish  historian,  without  any  reference 
to  Luke,  tells  of  a  gate  of  the  temple  which 
"greatly  excelled"  the  others,  and  which  was 
"adorned  after  a  most  costly  manner,  as  having 
much  richer  and  thicker  plates  of  silver  and  gold  " 
than  the  rest.  Did  the  priest  of  Jupiter,  according 
to  the  Acts,  bring  "oxen  and  garlands"  to  sacrifice 
in  honor  of  the  apostles  ?  Iu  a  triumph  voted  to 
an  ancient  general  there  figured,  according  to  classic 
story  (Plutarch),  "a  hundred  and  twenty  stalled 
oxen,  with  their  horns  gilded  and  their  heads 
adorned  with  ribbons  and  garlands"  Thus  accu- 
rate as  to  facts  which  we  are  incliued  to  dispute  are 
the  New-Testament  writers,  and  when  without  con- 
trivance they  are  corroborated  by  pagan  testimony, 
we  must  believe  that  those  who  were  faithful  in  re- 
cording what  was  least  are  equally  trustworthy  in 
their  narration  of  weightier  matters. 

Did  Paul  slander  the  Cretans  when  iu  his  letter 
to  Titus  he  warned  them  against  "  teaching  things 


102  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

which  they  ought  not,  for  filthy  lucre's  sake "  ? 
Nay,  this  accords  with  the  character  ascribed  to 
them  by  Plutarch  in  his  life  of  Perseus,  who  was 
uoted  for  being  covetous,  and  who  "  cheated/7  it  is 
said,  his  Cretan  followers,  not  giving  them  the 
money  he  promised  for  some  valuable  plate.  The 
historian  adds,  "  He  only  played  the  Cretan  with 
the  Cretans."  The  inspired  and  the  uninspired 
writers  agree  in  the  character  ascribed  to  those 
islanders,  and  yet  the  harmony  between  the  two 
was  unintentional.  A  little  and  yet  a  significant 
circumstance  is  this  :  it  is  the  very  small  rudder 
turning  the  whole  ship,  large  though  it  be ;  it  is 
one  of  those  undesigned  coincidences  which  con- 
firm the  truth  of  the  whole  New  Testament. 

Does  this  inspired  book  tell  us  of  the  crucifixion 
of  Christ  by  Pilate,  and  of  his  followers  being 
"  called  Christians  "  ?  The  Roman  Tacitus  of  the 
first  century  speaks  of  "persons  commonly  called 
Christians  who  were  hated  for  their  enormities. 
Christus,  the  founder  of  that  name,  was  put  to  death 
as  a  criminal  by  Pontius  Pilate."  Does  Luke  in 
the  Acts  say,  "Claudius  had  commanded  all  the 
Jews  to  depart  from  Rome  "  ?  Suetonius,  a  Latin 
contemporary,  says  of  the  same  emperor,  aHe 
banished  from  Rome  all  the  Jews,  who  were  con- 
tinually making  disturbances  at  the  instigation  of 
one  Chrestus;"  that  is,  Christ.  These  are  little 
things,  but  they  harmonize  wonderfully  and  with- 
out any  purpose  of  that  kind. 


INCIDENTAL  CONFIRMATIONS.  103 

When  the  multitude  was  to  be  miraculously  fed 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  John  says 
that  Jesus  asked  "  Philip  "  where  bread  could  be 
bought.  Why,  do  you  suppose,  was  the  question 
directed  to  Philip?  Well,  we  can  ascertain  why  in  a 
circuitous  way.  From  Luke  we  learn  that  the 
exact  locality  of  the  miracle  was  in  the  vicinity  of 
"  a  city  called  Bethsaida."  Then  we  are  told  by 
John,  but  not  in  connection  with  the  miracle,  that 
"  Philip  was  from  Bethsaida."  In  this  roundabout 
manner  do  we  see  why  Philip  was  asked  where  bread 
could  be  secured.  He  was  brought  up  in  that 
neighborhood,  and  would  know,  if  any  one  did, 
where  the  desired  purchase  could  be  made.  This 
is  indirect  but  very  strong  evidence  for  the  truthful- 
ness of  John  in  that,  without  saying  that  the  feed- 
ing of  the  multitude  was  at  Bethsaida,  he  made 
Christ  ask  concerning  a  place  for  buying  bread  of 
the  disciple  who  would  be  apt  to  know  because  of 
the  locality  being  near  his  native  city.  It  is  one  of 
those  minor  touches  which  establish  the  veracity 
of  the  New  Testament. 

Again  does  the  small  rudder  appear  when  Paul 
in  his  letter  to  the  Romans  commends  to  them 
Phoebe,  "a  servant  of  the  church  which  is  at 
Cenchrea"  and  when  it  is  remarked  of  him  in 
the  most  casual  way  in  the  Acts,  "  having  shorn 
his  head  in  CcnclireaP  The  one  reference  shows 
that  he  was  acquainted  with  a  member  of  the 
church  there,  and  the  other  that  he  had  been  there ; 


104  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

and  without  any  intention  they  confirm  each  other 
and  strengthen  our  faith  in  the  whole  New  Testa- 
ment. 

Once  more:  we  read  in  Colossians,  "Onesimus, 
the  faithful  and  beloved  brother,  who  is  one  of 
you;"  that  is,  one  of  the  Colossians.  Can  this  be, 
not  directly,  but  indirectly,  proved?  Turn  to 
Philemon,  and  Onesimus  is  found  to  be  a  "  ser- 
vant" of  Philemon.  But  did  Philemon  live  in 
Colosse?  The  letter  to  him  does  not  give  us  any 
information  on  this  point,  but  the  Epistle  does  con- 
tain greetings  to  Philemon  "  and  to  Archippus" 
"Where  did  Archippus  reside?  The  Epistle  to  the 
Colossiaus  says,  "Say  to  Archippus,  Take  heed  to 
the  ministry  which  thou  hast  received."  So  that 
Archippus  was  of  Colosse,  and  hence  Philemon 
was,  who  is  coupled  with  him  in  the  letter  to 
Philemon,  and  therefore  Onesimus  was  of  Colosse, 
for  he  was  a  slave  of  Philemon  ;  and  in  this  cir- 
cuitous manner  is  established  the  truth  of  what  the 
apostle  wrote  to  the  Colossians :  Onesimus,  "  who  is 
one  of  you."  These  circumstantial  coincidences  are 
what  give  credibility  to  the  testimony  of  different 
witnesses  in  court,  and  it  is  these  minute  agreements 
without  design  which  prove  the  truthfulness  of  the 
various  writers  of  the  New  Testament. 

The  fact  is,  that  both  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New  are  constantly  being  verified  in  the  most 
indirect  and  yet  positive  ways  by  the  marvelous 
discoveries  which  are  taking  place.     There  is  the 


INCIDENTAL   CONFIRMATIONS.  105 

oft-mentioned  case,  already  referred  to  in  a  pre- 
vious chapter,  of  the  proper  title  of  Sergius 
Paulus,  who  governed  the  island  of  Cyprus  at  the 
time  of  Paul's  visit.  Luke  was  long  thought  to 
have  made  a  mistake  in  calling  this  ruler  "pro- 
consul "  instead  of  "  propraetor,"  but  among  the 
confirmations  of  his  entire  accuracy  is  none  stronger 
than  the  finding  by  General  Cesnola,  in  modern 
excavations  at  Cyprus,  of  a  coin  bearing  the  in- 
scription, "In  the  proconsulship  of  Paulus"  who 
may  have  been  the  Sergius  Paulus  named  by  the 
sacred  historian,  and  whose  title  at  least  was  def- 
initely fixed  beyond  all  controversy.  Two  other 
very  striking  incidents  are  worth  mentioning  because 
of  their  important  bearing.  Since  we  read  in 
Haggai,  "and  will  make  thee  as  a  signet,"  very 
significantly,  within  a  few  years,  at  the  sinking  of 
a  shaft  to  the  depth  of  twenty-two  feet  at  the  city 
of  Jerusalem,  there  has  been  discovered  amid 
fragments  of  pottery  and  glass  a  gentleman's  seal, 
a  finely-grained  black  stone,  with  the  inscription, 
"Haggai  the  son  of  Shebaniah."  The  lettering  is 
of  the  kind  used  at  the  time  of  the  Babylonian 
Captivity.  The  prophet  Haggai  was  one  of  the 
exiles  who  returned  to  Jerusalem  under  the  lead 
of  Zerubbabel.  The  seal  found  may  therefore  be 
the  one  which  suggested  Haggai's  words  when  he 
said  of  his  leader,  "  and  will  make  thee  as  a  signet." 
The  prophet  may  have  held  up  before  Zerubbabel 
his  own  signet,  and  possibly  the  very  seal   lately 


106  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

exhumed,  and  certainly  inscribed  with  the  name  of 
"Haggai."7  When,  again,  like  that  noble  Roman 
who  bought  at  its  full  price  the  very  ground  on 
which  the  army  of  Haunibal  was  encamped,  Jere- 
miah with  all  confidence  in  the  future  made  his 
ancestral  purchase  in  his  native  Anathoth  over 
which  the  Babylonian  engines  of  war  were  rolling, 
the  prophet  said  of  this  famous  business  transaction, 
"  I  subscribed  the  deed,  and  sealed  it."  And  how 
he  prized  his  seal  is  indicated  by  that  other  verse 
in  his  prophecy  where  he  represents  God  as  saying 
of  the  king  of  Judah  that  though  he  "  were  the 
signet  upon  my  right  hand,  yet  would  I  pluck  thee 
thence."  In  connection  with  all  this  is  the  very 
suggestive  fact  that  among  recent  discoveries  in 
Egypt,  where  we  find  the  prophet  in  his  later  life, 
is  a  remarkable  seal  with  Phoenician  characters 
which  read,  "To  the  Prosperity  of  Jeremiah"  The 
type  of  lettering  is  assigned  to  the  seventh  century 
before  Christ,  and  hence  the  seal,  it  lias  been  said, 
"may  be  a  veritable  relic  of  the  great  Hebrew 
prophet  Jeremiah."  These  surely  are  wonderful 
incidental  confirmations  of  the  prophetic  writings. 
The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  is,  that  both 
Testaments,  Old  and  New,  have  come  down  many 
centuries  over  a  tempestuous  sea,  assailed  by  fierce 
gales  of  an  unbelieving  criticism,  but  as  often  as 
they  have  been  driven  out  toward  the  rocks  of 
infidelity,  they  have  been  veered  back  into  the 
confidence  of  Christians  by  some  undesigned  coin- 


INCIDENTAL  CONFIRMATIONS.  107 

cidence,  by  some  incidental  confirmation  of  their 
entire  truthfulness.  "  Behold,  the  ships  also,  though 
they  are  so  great,  and  are  driven  by  rough  winds, 
are  yet  turned  about  by  a  very  small  rudder, 
whither  the  impulse  of  the  steersman  willeth." 
So  it  has  been  with  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  let  us 
thank  God  for  their  preservation  and  complete 
establishment  in  ways  so  circuitous  and  undesigned. 
God  by  a  very  small  rudder  has  repeatedly  kept 
them  straight  on  their  course  to  carry  the  gospel 
of  glad  tidings  to  all  the  world. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  BIBLE  AND  SCIENCE;   OB,   THE  CREATIVE 
WEEK. 

"For  in  six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the 
sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh  day." — 
Ex.20:  11. 

"TT7E  will  take  a  general  and  a  specific  view  of 
»*     the   subject   suggested   by   this   text,   which 
brings   at   once  to  our   thought   the   topic  of  the 
Bible  and  Science. 

1.  The  creative  week,  as  described  by  Moses  in 
the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  has  probably  caused 
more  discussion  than  any  other  portion  of  Scripture ; 
nor  have  Genesis  and  geology  yet  been  harmonized 
in  a  way  that  satisfies  all  minds.  There  are  those 
to  whom  the  differences  between  religion  and  science 
at  this  very  starting-point  of  the  controversy  seem 
irreconcilable,  and  they  accordingly  reject  the  whole 
scheme  of  revelation,  and  they  acknowledge  noth- 
ing but  nature.  The  first  article  of  the  unbeliever's 
creed  has  been  stated  in  this  fashion :  "  I  believe 
that  there  is  no  God,  but  that  matter  is  God,  and 
God  is  matter;  and  that  it  is  no  matter  whether 
there  is  any  God  or  not." 

108 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SCIENCE.  109 

But  while  some  consider  the  Mosaic  cosmogony 
as  wholly  mythical,  and  while  others  regard  it  as 
allegorical — a  picture  at  best  of  the  great  epochs  in 
creation — most  biblical  scholars  hold  that  the  nar- 
rative is  essentially  historical  and  altogether  true. 
Still,  no  intelligent  interpreter  now  maintains  that 
the  whole  creation  took  place  in  six  literal  days. 
That  was  for  centuries  the  prevailing  view  (al- 
though Augustine  and  others  of  the  early  Fathers 
did  not  hold  to  it),  but  it  was  long  the  general 
view,  which  at  first  was  not  abandoned,  though  it 
did  seem  to  conflict  with   geologic  facts. 

What  if  the  sedimentary  formations  were  such 
as  to  indicate  a  work  of  thousands  and  perhaps 
millions  of  years  ?  It  was  argued  that  God  could 
have  formed  the  deposits  at  ouce.  So  could  he  form 
the  blade  of  grass  in  an  instant,  but  we  see  that  he 
does  not,  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  he  in  a 
moment's  time  created  the  sandstones,  whose  for- 
mation a  natural  and  protracted  growth,  such  as  is 
going  on  to-day,  better  explains.  What  if  the 
rocks  did  contain  fossil  remains  which  seemed  to 
show  that  animals  and  plants  existed  long  ages 
before  the  assumed  time  of  the  creation?  God 
could  have  instantly  created  a  fossil,  it  was  claimed, 
to  represent  an  animal  or  a  plant  which  never  really 
existed.  He  perhaps  could  have  done  so,  but  it  is 
not  at  all  likely  that  he  did. 

That  argument  failed  to  satisfy  the  human  mind. 
If,   in    excavating,   the   remains  of  a   buried   city 


110  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

should  be  exhumed,  people  would  believe  that  it 
had  been  built  there  naturally  by  a  generation  of 
living  men.  Of  course  God  might  have  imbedded 
in  the  earth,  by  a  fiat  of  his,  just  such  ruins  when 
he  called  this  universe  iuto  being,  but  only  the 
most  ignorant  would  give  credence  to  any  such 
theory.  So  the  discovery  of  fossils  deep  down  in 
sedimentary  rocks  which  could  have  been  formed 
by  the  slow  deposits  of  waters  only  during  a  period 
far  longer  than  the  commonly  accepted  age  of  this 
world,  forces  the  reason  to  believe  that,  for  in- 
stance, the  foot-tracks  of  those  immense  auimals 
"  which  stalked  on  the  Permian  sands  and  mud " 
were  impressed  there  naturally  by  those  gigantic 
creatures  when  those  alluvial  deposits  were  made 
thousands  and  thousands  of  years  ago,  and  that  God 
did  not  six  millenniums  ago  by  a  miraculous  act 
imprint  life-like  tracks  in  the  stratified  layers  just 
to  deceis^e  man.  Likewise  the  petrified  leaf  or  tree 
cannot  be  thought  to  be  a  supernatural,  but  a  nat- 
ural, formation.  We  did  not  see  it  turn  to  stone, 
but  we  kuow  it  did,  because  we  can  trace  the  orig- 
inal vegetable  lines  and  characteristics.  So  that 
a  progressive  creation  is  no  longer  doubted,  the  prog- 
ress extendiug  over  more  than  six  days  of  twenty- 
four  hours  each. 

There  are  two  main  methods  of  giving  time  for 
the  geologic  formations.  The  one  is  to  fix  a  great 
gulf  between  the  first  verse  of  the  inspired  record 
and  what  follows  :  "  In  the  beginning  God  created 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SCIENCE.  Ill 

the  heaven  and  the  earth."  To  that  indefinite 
period,  "  in  the  beginning,"  can  be  assigned  those 
long  ages  of  which  we  read  in  the  books — Cam- 
brian, Silurian,  Carboniferous,  or  Primary,  Second- 
ary and  Tertiary,  or  Azoic,  Mesozoic  and  Palaeozoic, 
and  so  on  up  through  the  technical  list ; — these  all 
would  belong  to  the  "  in  the  beginning."  Then 
would  follow  six  natural  days,  during  which  the 
previous  chaotic  disorder,  by  fiats  of  the  Almighty, 
wTould  be  resolved  into  the  beautiful  cosmos  which 
became  the  habitation  of  man. 

The  other  method  of  reconciling  the  geologic  and 
Mosaic  records  is  to  make  the  days  to  be  vast 
stretches  of  time.  The  most  prominent  advocates 
of  this  view  from  the  scientific  standpoint  are  Pro- 
fessor Dana  of  Yale  and  the  late  Professor  Guyot 
of  Princeton  College,  and  their  explanations  are 
certainly  very  plausible ;  and  it  is  not  strange  that 
a  large  portion  of  Christendom  seems  to  be  settling 
down  to  an  acceptance  of  the  harmony  which  can 
thus  be  established.  It  violates  no  law  of  herme- 
neutics,  no  sound  exegetical  principle,  to  prolong  in- 
definitely the  six  days  of  creation.  We  are  assured 
by  the  sacred  writers  themselves  that  one  day  is 
with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years.  Then  such  ex- 
pressions as  these  are  found  in  the  Bible :  "  the  day 
of  salvation,"  "  the  day  of  wrath,"  "  the  day  of 
temptation,"  "  the  day  of  trouble,"  "  the  day  of 
Egypt,"  where  manifestly  there  is  no  hour-limit. 
In  the  very  narrative  of  the  creation  the  word  is 


112  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

employed  to  mark  varying  periods  of  duration.  It 
occurs  three  times  before  the  appearance  of  the  sun 
at  all — of  that  orb  which  gave  the  present  succes- 
sion of  darkness  and  light.  Once  it  is  used  to  cover 
the  whole  process  of  the  creation  — "  in  the  day 
that  the  Lord  God  made  the  earth  and  the  heavens/' 
this  day  being  thus  coextensive  with  the  six  days 
previously  mentioned.  As  a  matter  of  interpreta- 
tion, therefore,  there  can  be  no  objection  to  making 
the  days  denote  geologic  ages,  as  the  scholarly  Tay- 
ler  Lewis  long  ago  did  in  his  famous  Six  Days  of 
Creation. 

A  more  important  question  is,  Is  the  order  of 
creation  the  same  scripturally  that  it  is  scientifically? 
The  parallelism  is  so  marked  as  to  have  convinced 
the  master-minds  of  even  the  eminent  scientists  to 
whom  reference  has  been  made  that  the  two  revela- 
tions, in  the  word  of  truth  and  in  the  work  of  na- 
ture, must  be  alike  from  God.  The  Yale  professor, 
in  his  Manual  of  Geology,  says :  "  The  order  of 
events  in  the  Scripture  cosmogony  corresponds  es- 
sentially with  that  which  has  been  given  "  (in  his 
book) ;  and  he  sees  in  this  "a  far-reaching  prophecy 
to  which  philosophy  could  not  have  attained,  how- 
ever instructed."  The  distinguished  Princeton  nat- 
uralist was  so  struck  with  the  resemblances  that  he 
wrote  a  little  volume  on  Creation;  or,  The  Biblical 
Cosmogony  in  the  Light  of  Modern  Science,  in  which 
his  enthusiasm  kindles  because  of  what  he  calls 
"the  grand  cosmogonic  week  described  by  Moses." 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SCIENCE.  113 

Principal  Dawson  of  Canada,  in  his  Origin  of  the 
World,  still  more  minutely  presents  the  wonderful 
agreement  of  the  Bible  aud  science.  It  is  the 
thoughts  of  such  specialists  that  we  have  endeavored 
to  assimilate  and  are  trying  to  unfold. 

In  these  times  of  skeptical  contrasts  drawn  be- 
tween creation  and  evolution,  to  the  disparagement 
of  the  former,  we  need  to  bear  in  mind  that  they  are 
not  necessarily  antagonistic — that  there  are  theistic 
and  Christian  evolutionists,  like  the  late  Professor 
Gray  of  Harvard  and  botany  fame,  and  like  the 
lamented  Agassiz.8  Let  us  only  become  acquainted 
with  the  facts,  and  wre  shall  not  be  frightened  at  in- 
fidel claims  of  divergence  and  opposition,  and  our 
faith  will  not  waver  in  the  least  as  we  repeat  the 
words  spoken  of  old  by  inspiration  :  "  For  in  six 
days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea,  and 
all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh  day." 

2.  Turning  now  to  details,  let  us  follow  along 
the  latest  paths  of  science  over  the  creative  week, 
and  let  us  see  how  they  do  not  diverge  at  all  from 
the  old  paths  of  religion. 

The  first  day,  or  geologic  age,  was  characterized 
by  the  creation  of  matter  and  by  the  appearance  of 
light.  The  universe  was  called  into  being,  but  in  a 
chaotic  or  nebulous  condition — u  the  earth  was  waste 
and  void."  A  nebula  wTas  created,  diffused  through 
space,  but  this  vapory  mass  was  inert  till  God  said, 
"  Let  there  be  light."  This  was  not  the  light  of 
the  sun  (which  had  not  yet  appeared),  but  cosmical 


114  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

light,  a  light  produced  by  molecular  action.  The 
Almighty  imparted  a  rotary  motiou  to  the  igueous 
mass ;  he  set  it  revolving ;  he  gave  it  laws  of  action 
which  still  operate  in  gravity,  in  chemical  and  other 
natural  forces.  This  was  the  beginning,  a  fire-mist 
turning  on  an  axis,  matter  in  activity.  "  A  flash 
of  light  through  the  universe,"  says  the  scientist 
(Daua  condensing  from  Guyot),  "  would  be  the  first 
announcement  of  the  work  begun."  So  much  for 
the  first  day,  for  its  evening  and  morning — "  a  fa- 
miliar metaphor/'  we  are  told  (Dana)  with  appar- 
ent good  reason,  to  indicate  "the  beginning  aud 
consummation  of  each  work,"  for  there  was  as  yet 
no  solar  day.  There  was  simply  luminosity  from 
the  movements  of  multitudinous  atoms. 

The  second  day,  or  geologic  age,  was  marked  by 
the  separation  of  the  waters  from  the  waters  by  a 
firmament.  The  gaseous  would  in  time  by  contrac- 
tion become  the  molten,  of  the  consistency  of  water. 
Such  waters  were  separated  from  waters ;  the  great 
watery  bulk  broke  up  into  different  globules  of  still 
immense  proportions.  On  the  first  day  matter  was 
created  and  endowed  with  force,  but  it  was  one 
whirling,  fluid  mass,  with  vast  sphericity.  As  it 
cooled  and  condensed  it  would  revolve  more  and 
more  rapidly,  till  the  centrifugal  force  became 
greater  than  the  centripetal,  and  portion  after  por- 
tion, like  so  many  watery  drops,  would  be  thrown 
off,  each  assuming  a  spheroidal  shape  by  the  laws 
of  motion.      One   of   these  vast  revolving  masses 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SCIENCE.  115 

would  be  the  original  material  of  our  solar  system. 
which  iu  turn  would  break  up,  aud  the  planets  would 
in  this  way  be  formed  ;  and  they  too,  as  often  as  they 
threw  off  a  portion  of  their  still  liquid  bulk,  would 
have  a  satellite  or  moon.  Thus  our  present  solar 
system  would  be  gradually  produced  or  evolved, 
with  the  central  mass  constituting  the  sun,  which  is 
still  a  glowing,  heated  ball.  This  dividing  and  sub- 
dividing of  primordial  matter  occupied  the  second 
day.  The  earth,  before  included  in  the  general 
mass,  was  individualized,  was  given  a  separate  ex- 
istence, a  definite  shape.  Its  waters  were  divided 
off  from  the  other  waters.  This  liquid  globe  of 
ours  became  defined,  disentangled  from  the  rest  of 
the  fire-mist.  The  exact  words  of  the  scientist 
(Guyot)  in  describing  the  work  of  the  second  day 
are  :  "  The  vast  primitive  nebula  of  the  first  day 
breaks  up  into  a  multitude  of  gaseous  masses,  and 
these  are  concentrated  into  stars."  One  of  these 
nebulous  stars  would  be  the  earth. 

The  third  day  came,  and  with  it,  according  to  the 
biblical  narrative,  continents  and  oceans  and  vege- 
tation. This  accords  with  the  geological  facts. 
The  unfinished  earth  would  cool  and  contract,  and 
the  condensed  vapors  would  make  a  sea  covering 
the  entire  surface  of  the  globe.  The  heated  sphere 
with  its  cooling  crust  would  naturally  crumple  up, 
form  into  great  wrinkles,  acquire  elevations  and  de- 
pressions, and  there  would  thus  result  the  sea  and 
the   dry  land.      Then   the   lower   plant-organisms 


116  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

would  start,  while  yet  the  waters  were  too  hot  for 
animal  life;  and  it  is  worth  observing  that  some  forms 
of  vegetation  can  exist  at  two  hundred  degrees  Fah- 
renheit. The  earth  would  be  a  great  humid,  shaded 
hothouse,  giving  rise  to  those  luxuriant  growths  to 
which  the  everlasting  rocks  testify,  when  ferns  at- 
tained the  height  of  our  most  stately  forest  trees. 
Whether  vegetation  developed  without  a  creative  act 
from  existent  matter  is  not  clear.  One  thing  is 
certain,  no  experiments  have  yet  succeeded  in  ar- 
ranging material  particles  so  as  to  produce  living 
species;  spontaneous  generation  is  yet  unproved. 
Possibly  vegetation  did  develop  from  matter  en- 
dowed from  the  beginning  with  germinant  force 
under  favorable  conditions,  for  the  language  is, 
"  Let  the  earth  bring  forth"  There  was  an  absolute 
creation  on  the  first  day,  but  the  word  "  create  "  is 
not  used  of  the  work  of  the  second  day,  when, 
therefore,  the  earth  may  have  been,  and  seems  to 
have  been,  evolved  from  the  general  mass ;  and  the 
word  "  create"  is  not  used  of  the  work  of  the  third 
day,  when  it  would  seem  as  if  continents  and  oceans 
were  formed  by  a  natural  process,  and  when  possibly 
vegetation  was  developed  from  the  earth,  and  not 
strictly  created  ;  when  the  creation  would  be  mediate 
— from  pre-existent  materials.  These  are  unsettled 
points,  but  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  agreement  in 
the  main  events  of  the  third  day  in  Genesis  and  of 
the  corresponding  age  in  geology. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  Moses  has  no  sun,  no 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SCIENCE.  117 

moon,  no  stars  till  the  fourth  day  ;  but  this,  too,  is 
in  accordance  with  the  revelation  which  science  has 
to  make.  While  the  earth  was  hot  it  would  have  a 
steaming  atmosphere.  Thick  vapors  would  con- 
stantly rise  from  the  waters,  and  there  would  never 
be  the  absence  of  dense  clouds.  Even  when  the  first 
vegetation  appeared  at  a  possible  temperature  of 
two  hundred  degrees,  there  must  have  arisen  great 
volumes  of  steam.  The  humidity  of  the  air  must 
have  been  beyond  anything  experienced  now,  even 
in  our  fogs  that  fairly  drip  and  that  prevent  vision 
farther  than  a  few  feet.  By  continued  cooling  the 
water  would  to  a  less  and  less  degree  be  converted 
into  cloud,  and  the  encircling  envelope  of  fog  would 
at  length  break  and  vanish,  and  the  sun  would  for 
the  first  time  blaze  forth.  The  moon  would  also 
swing  in  her  orbit  a  thing  of  beauty,  and  the  stars 
would  flash  their  brightness  on  the  scene.  Thus 
"  God  made  two  great  lights  "  on  the  fourth  day,  so 
we  read,  "  and  he  made  the  stars  also."  That  is, 
he  made  them  to  appear,  for  the  word  here  is  not 
"  create."  What  wonderful  exactness  of  lano-ua^e  ! 
and  how  amazing  that  the  unscientific  Moses  had 
our  luminaries  to  shine  forth  in  just  the  right  geo- 
logic time!  He  had  them  created  in  the  beginning, 
when  they  belonged  to  the  first  nebulous  mass,  but 
he  did  not  have  them  outlined  in  a  clear  sky  till  the 
earth  had  sufficiently  cooled  to  cease  forming  impen- 
etrable clouds.  Verily,  great  and  marvelous  are 
God's  works  as  they  appear  in  the  scriptural  and 


118  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

scientific  facts  connected  with  the  fourth  day  in  the 
creative  week. 

The  fifth  day  consistently  introduces  the  lower  or- 
ders of  animal  life,  which  yet  is  higher  than  vegetable 
life,  and  here  for  the  first  since  the  original  creation 
the  strong  word  "  create"  occurs,  as  if  to  teach  that 
there  is  no  development  from  plant  to  beast. 

The  sixth  day  ushers  in  the  higher  animals,  with 
man  to  crown  the  work,  and  with  reference  to  him 
again  a  creation  is  asserted,  and  repeated  three  times, 
as  if  to  emphasize  his  entire  distinctness  from  the 
brute,  out  of  which  he  could  not  have  been  evolved 
any  more  than  the  animal  from  the  plant ;  and  the 
scientist  himself  (Dana)  bears  this  testimony  :  "  No 
remains  of  ancient  man  have  been  found  that  are 
of  a  lower  grade  than  the  lowest  of  existing  tribes  ; 
none  that  show  any  less  of  the  erect  posture  and  of 
other  characteristics  of  the  exalted  species."  Of 
the  development  of  animal  life  from  its  lowest  forms 
up  through  the  reptilian  age,  when  great  bird-like 
and  kangaroo-shaped  creatures  raising  themselves 
on  their  hind  legs  stood  eighty  feet  high  in  our  own 
Colorado — of  the  progress  of  animal  life  up  to  man 
during  the  fifth  and  sixth  days — Guyot  says  that 
Scripture  gives  "the  precise  order  indicated  by 
geology." 

Thus  the  harmony  between  the  six  days  of 
Genesis  and  the  corresponding  ages  of  geology  is 
complete.  Both  recognize  a  gradual  development, 
and    both   find   crises   where   evolution    must    be 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SCIENCE.  119 

supplemented  by  creation  ;  and  the  only  question 
of  debate  is  how  often  the  purely  creative  acts 
occurred.  An  original  creation  can  never  be  dis- 
proved, and  if  it  should  be  finally  established  that 
humanity  itself  was  evolved  out  of  some  primordial 
organism,  there  will  still  be  a  Creator  to  adore  and 
worship  in  Him  who  could  endow  a  floating  nebula 
with  such  potency  as  to  develop  a  system  of  worlds, 
a  fiery  globe,  a  green  earth,  bright  skies,  bird  and 
beast,  and  that  lord  of  all — imperial  man. 

The  seventh  day  well  came  with  its  absence  of 
special  creative  energy,  extending  over  the  entire 
history  of  mankind.  The  era  of  human  existence 
is  God's  Sabbath.  It  also  is  a  geologic  day,  having 
lasted  already  at  least  six  thousand  years,  daring 
which  God  has,  in  a  measure,  been  resting.  Such  is 
the  creative  week,  with  its  culminating  glory  in  this 
wonderful  Sabbatic  age  of  man.  And  Guyot  notes 
a  striking  circumstance  when  he  says,  "  At  the  end 
of  each  of  the  six  working  days  of  creation  we 
find  an  evening.  But  the  morning  of  the  seventh 
is  not  followed  by  any  evening.  The  day  is  still 
open.  When  the  evening  shall  come  the  last  hour 
of  humanity  will  strike."  As  this  moment,  prac- 
tically for  each  of  us,  is  rapidly  approaching  in  the 
certainty  of  death,  and  as  God  has  his  Sabbath  of 
holy  complacency  in  his  work,  let  us,  in  our  smaller 
way,  after  our  six  days  of  labor  have  a  seventh 
when  we  can  be  still  and  worshipful,  when  we  can 
contemplate  such  noble  themes  as  that  which  has 


120  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

been  occupying  our  attention.  May  we  ever  after 
this,  in  view  of  the  thought  which  has  been  pre- 
sented, be  able  to  say  with  a  sublimer  significance, 
with  a  firmer  faith,  with  a  more  devotional  and 
reverent  spirit,  and  with  a  gladder  heart,  "  Remem- 
ber the  Sabbath  day,  to  keep  it  holy.  .  .  .  For  in 
six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea, 
and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh 
day." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MUMMIES  OF  THE 
PHARAOHS. 

"  And  shewedst  signs  and  wonders  upon  Pharaoh,  and  on 
all  his  servants,  and  on  all  the  people  of  his  land  ;  for  thou 
knewest  that  they  dealt  proudly  against  them ;  and  didst  get 
thee  a  name,  as  it  is  this  day." — Neh.  9 :  10. 

IN  the  spring  of  1887  the  papers  contained  the 
startling  news  that  the  remains  of  Lincoln  had 
been  examined  and  recognized  preparatory  to  what 
might  be  hoped  to  be  the  final  interment  of  our 
great  martyr-President.  More  than  twenty  years 
had  elapsed  since  he  died,  but  his  features  still 
bore  the  old  familiar  expression.  Wonderful,  we 
say,  that  the  loved  face  of  the  distinguished  dead 
should  have  been  kept  in  such  a  state  of  preserva- 
tion !  More  marvelous  is  the  fact  to  which  our 
attention  is  now  to  be  directed.  Through  the  eyes 
of  actual  observers  we  are  to  look  upon  the  coun- 
tenances of  some  of  the  Pharaohs  of  Egypt. 
Napoleon  stimulated  his  soldiers  to  gain  the  cele- 
brated victory  at  the  battle  of  the  Pyramids  as  in 
full  view  of  those  monuments  of  antiquity  he  said, 
"  From  those  summits  forty  centuries  contemplate 
your   actions."     To-day  not  only   the   stupendous 

121 


122  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

works  of  the  Pharaohs,  but  those  monarchs  them- 
selves, are  literally  looking  down  upon  all  travelers 
to  Egypt  in  the  mummies  which  have  lately  been 
discovered  at  Thebes. 

Many  have  been  growing  incredulous  of  what  is 
related  in  the  Bible  of  the  ancient  rulers  of  Egypt 
in  connection  with  biblical  characters.  Skepticism 
has  been  assailing  Moses,  has  been  sneering  at  his 
"  mistakes,"  till  some  have  come  to  regard  him  as 
a  mythical  personage.  The  story  of  Joseph  has 
been  called  a  beautiful  romance,  but  nothing  more. 
One  school  of  the  higher  criticism  has  been  trying 
to  undermine  the  historical  accuracy  of  the  whole 
Pentateuch.  "The  signs  and  wonders  upon  Pha- 
raoh "  of  which  the  text  speaks  have  been  regarded 
as  idle  tales,  as  the  imaginations  of  superstitious 
minds,  like  the  fables  with  which  classic  story 
abounds.  But  just  when  the  assaults  of  infidelity 
upon  the  early  scriptural  narratives  have  been 
made  with  the  greatest  confidence  of  utterly  demol- 
ishing the  foundations  of  revealed  religion,  there 
have  come  confirmations  of  the  Bible  truly  astonish- 
ing. Greater,  if  anything,  than  the  miracles  of  old 
have  been  the  revelations  of  the  last  few  years, 
whereby  the  mummies  of  some  of  the  greatest  of 
the  Pharaohs  have  been  discovered. 

It  is  well  known  that  embalming  was  carried  to 
a  state  of  almost  perfection  by  the  Egyptians. 
For  centuries  the  art  was  practiced,  and  it  has  been 
estimated  that  there  must  be  in  the  land  of  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  PHARAOHS.       123 

Nile  from  four  hundred  to  seven  hundred  million 
mummies.  These  are  constantly  being  brought  to 
light,  and  a  few  dollars  will  now  purchase  one  of 
these  dry,  shriveled  bodies  of  ages  ago. 

In  1881  there  flashed  over  the  wires  to  England, 
France  and  the  whole  world  the  announcement 
of  a  rich  "find"  of  royal  mummies.  In  1882 
came  the  official  reports  of  professors  and  archaeo- 
logical authorities.  Experts  in  Egyptology  had 
for  some  time  been  struck  with  rare  ornaments 
coming  into  circulation,  the  inscriptions  on  which 
indicated  that  they  had  been  worn  by  royalty  in 
very  remote  times.  These  came  from  three  brothers 
who  would  not  reveal  the  source  whence  they  were 
deriving  a  very  handsome  revenue.  They  hinted 
that  they  had  greater  treasures  yet  which  might  in 
the  future  be  produced  for  a  consideration.  They, 
however,  kept  their  profitable  secret  till  the  impris- 
onment of  one  of  them,  and  the  fear  of  the  other 
two  that  he  would  divulge  the  secret  and  alone 
receive  the  promised  reward,  led  to  the  revealing 
of  the  place — a  cave  full  of  royal  mummies. 

In  the  solid  rock  anciently  had  been  sunk  a  shaft 
six  feet  and  a  half  square  and  about  thirty-seven 
feet  deep.  At  the  bottom  of  this  was  a  long  and 
winding  passage,  ending  in  a  chamber  or  vault 
twenty-three  feet  long  by  thirteen  feet  wide.  In 
this  subterranean  room  reposed  nearly  forty  mum- 
mies, some  of  which  have  proved  to  be  the  em- 
balmed bodies  of   the  greatest   of   the   Pharaohs. 


124  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

They  were  removed,  and  packed  as  so  much  freight 
in  a  modern  steamer,  which,  puffing  and  whistling, 
bore  them  triumphantly  over  the  very  waters  along 
which  had  swept  the  magnificent  funeral-barges  of 
the  same  mighty  dead  between  three  and  four  thou- 
sand years  ago.  What  a  commentary  on  human 
greatness  !  Those  mummied  Pharaohs  now  adorn  a 
museum  at  Boolak  on  the  Nile,  a  short  distance  from 
Cairo.  These  are  the  "signs  and  wonders  upon 
Pharaoh,"  to  quote  from  our  text,  "  as  it  is  this  day." 
What  Pharaohs  have  been  found  ?  Pharaoh  was 
the  name  of  an  office  rather  than  of  any  one  ruler. 
It  was  like  Csesar  in  Roman  annals,  like  Czar  in 
Russian  history,  like  President  in  our  own  country. 
It  meant  "  Great  House,"  and  thus  corresponded  to 
"  Sublime  Porte  "  in  Turkey  at  present.  The  house 
of  Pharaoh  was  great.  It  furnished  a  long  line  of 
famous  monarchs  who  reigned  in  splendor  through 
hundreds  of  years.  They  dealt  proudly  against 
God's  people,  but  Nehemiah  declares  that  the  Lord 
got  him  a  name  by  the  "  signs  and  wonders  upon 
Pharaoh."  This  was  true  of  the  miracles  wrought 
anciently,  and  it  is  no  less  true  of  the  mummies 
which  have  been  providentially  found  just  when 
the  attacks  upon  the  Mosaic  books  have  been  most 
severe  and  confident.  The  higher  criticism  of  the 
skeptical  sort  goes  down  before  the  mummied 
Pharaohs  who  have  been  authenticated,  duly  num- 
bered and  laid  away  on  shelves.  Let  us  inquire 
who  some  of  them  are. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  PHARAOHS.       125 

1.  It  is  not  certain  who  the  Pharaoh  of  Joseph's 
time  was,  but  among  those  un wrapt  in  the  summer 
of  1886  was  Thotmes  the  Third,  who  is  noted  as  the 
great  obelisk-maker,  and  Joseph  lived  in  On,  the 
city  of  the  Sun,  where  the  obelisks  principally 
stood.  They  were  meant  to  point  to  the  orb  of 
day,  that  object  of  Egyptian  worship,  somewhat  as 
our  church-spires  point  heavenward  to  direct  our 
thoughts  thither.  When  the  sarcophagus  of  Thot- 
mes, the  obelisk-maker,  was  opened,  there  was  dis- 
covered a  little  wasp  which  had  evidently  been  at- 
tracted by  the  perfumes  and  the  flowers  used  in 
burial,  and  which  had  inadvertently  been  sealed  up 
with  the  dead  monarch.  Thotmes  was  not  tall,  only 
five  feet  and  two  inches,  but  he  seems  to  have  had 
lofty  aspirations,  or  he  would  not  have  erected  so 
many  obelisks,  one  of  which  now  stands  in  Central 
Park,  New  York  City.  That  is  something  very 
tangible  to  link  us  to  the  distant  past.  There  is 
nothing  mythical  and  unreal  about  that  grand 
pyramid  of  stone,  weighing  over  two  hundred  tons, 
but  slender  and  graceful,  and  tapering  needle-like 
to  a  point,  so  that  when  Augustus  Caesar  had  it  re- 
moved to  Alexandria  to  commemorate  his  conquest 
of  Egypt  soon  after  the  death  of  the  most  beautiful 
of  Egyptian  queens,  it  was  not  inappropriately  called 
Cleopatra's  Needle — a  name  which  it  still  bears, 
although  it  was  first  erected  by  Thotmes  in  the  city 
of  Joseph's  residence.  There  it  stood,  with  others, 
at  the  entrance  to  the  temple  of  the  Sun.     It  is  not 


126  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

certain  when  Joseph  lived,  but  if  at  the  later  date 
to  which  he  is  assigned  by  scholars,  then  he  looked 
upon  this  identical  obelisk.  His  father-in-law,  the 
priest  of  On,  daily  passed  it  as  he  went  into  the 
temple  to  officiate  at  the  altar.  This  priest's 
daughter,  who  became  the  Avife  of  Joseph,  in  this 
case,  must  have  often  been  helped  in  her  devo- 
tions by  the  stately  monolith  reaching  with  its  top 
toward  the  sky,  the  source  of  light.  As  another 
has  said,  the  morning  she  became  a  bride  would  be 
ushered  in  by  prayers  whose  inspiration  would  in 
part  arise  from  the  sight  of  the  heavenward-point- 
ing obelisk  upon  which  we  to-day  gaze  with  awe 
and  pleasure,  and  at  whose  base  the  traveler 
stands  amid  a  rush  of  historic  memories.  Whether 
Joseph  and  his  Egyptian  wife  saw  this  obelisk  or 
not — they  probably  did  not — they  at  any  rate  saw 
that  father  of  obelisks  which  still  stands  at  Heliop- 
olis,  and  which,  we  are  told,  was  raised  on  its  ped- 
estal before  Abraham  was  born.  Now  the  great 
obelisk-maker  was  Thotmes,  whose  mummy,  with 
others,  has  recently  been  unrolled.  Unfortunately, 
he  crumbled  to  dust  soon  after  his  exposure  to  the 
air,  but  not  till  he  had  been  photographed.  We 
can  therefore  look  upon  the  picture  of  the  Pharaoh 
who  did  most  to  adorn  with  obelisks  the  city  where 
Joseph  rose  to  distinction.  How  much  more  real 
such  a  fact  makes  the  person  with  whose  dramatic 
history  we  are  familiar  as  from  slavery  and  the 
dungeon   he   rose  to  be  second  only  to  Pharaoh ! 


THE  BIBLE  AXD   THE  PHARAOHS.       127 

The  Pharaoh  who  did  most  for  the  city  where 
Joseph  married  his  wife  has  been  seen  within  the 
last  three  years.  His  mummied  face  has  been 
actually  observed  by  more  than  one,  and  a  granite 
column  which  he  made  can  be  seen  by  every  visitor 
to  the  metropolis  of  our  country.  How  strange 
and  wonderful  it  all  is  !  "  Signs  and  wonders  upon 
Pharaoh  M  "  as  it  is  this  day." 

2.  Another  Pharaoh  whose  mummy  in  the  Boo- 
lak  Museum  is  putting  honor  upon  God's  word  is 
Seti  the  First.  We  read  in  Scripture  of  "Pharaoh's 
daughter"  who  went  down  to  the  river  to  bathe, 
and  who  saw  caught  in  reeds  of  the  Nile  a  beautiful 
babe  in  a  little  ark.  We  have  always  had  a  warm 
feeling  for  the  princess  who  was  touched  by  the 
tears  of  the  helpless  innocent,  and  who  named  him 
Moses,  which  means  "  drawn  out,"  in  allusion  to 
his  having  been  taken  out  of  the  water.  How  we 
would  like  to  look  upon  the  kindly  face  of  her  to 
whom  the  young  sister  of  the  saved  child  went  with 
a  proposition  to  find  a  nurse,  while  the  ingenious 
plan  was  carried  out  of  the  mother  herself  being 
brought  for  the  tender  service !  How  we  would 
like  to  see  the  features  of  Pharaoh's  daughter,  who 
gave  Moses  his  early  training,  initiating  him  into 
"  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians  "  !  We  may  yet 
see  the  face  of  this  fair  princess.  Meanwhile  we 
are  permitted  to  look  upon  the  face  of  her  supposed 
father  (or  possibly  grandfather),  Seti,  who  may  have 
begun  the  Oppression,  but  who  now  lies  a  mummy  in 


128  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

a  museum  on  the  Nile  not  far  from  the  place  where 
the  child  Moses  was  rescued  from  a  fate  which  act- 
ually was  that  of  multitudes  of  other  babes.  Great 
power  had  this  Pharaoh  then,  but  now  his  sarcoph- 
agus is  in  an  English  museum,  and  he  himself  is 
fated  to  serve  as  a  curiosity  on  the  very  scene  of  his 
tyranny.  He  graces  a  niche  at  Boolak,  and  of  him 
Dr.  C.  S.  Robinson  says,  with  a  fiue  sarcasm,  "  the 
most  beautiful  mummy-head  which  ever  found  a 
place  iu  the  museum."  Such  is  the  father,  as  is 
believed,  of  "  Pharaoh's  daughter."  Can  it  be  pos- 
sible? It  is,  wonderfully  coufirrniug  the  word  of 
God.  It  is  amoug  the  "  signs  and  wonders  upon 
Pharaoh  "  "  as  it  is  this  day." 

3.  The  next  Pharaoh  has  been  identified  beyond 
all  shadow  of  a  doubt  as  the  one  who  specially 
made  the  Israelites  to  sigh  and  groan  "  by  reason 
of  the  bondage."  In  Exodus  we  read  of  the  poor 
slaves,  "  And  they  built  for  Pharaoh  store-cities, 
Pithom  and  Raamses."  Recent  excavations  have 
laid  bare  one  of  these,  Pithom.  What  is  seen  ?  A 
brick  wall  twenty-two  feet  thick  and  six  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  along  each  side.  Nearly  all  the  en- 
closed space  is  occupied  with  solidly-built  square 
chambers,  separated  by  brick  walls  eight  to  ten  feet 
thick,  without  windows  or  doors.  This,  from  the 
inscriptions,  has  been  found  to  be  Pithom,  and 
Rawlinson,  the  historian  and  Egyptologist,  says 
there  is  "  no  reasonable  doubt  that  one  of  the  two 
cities  built  by  the  Israelites  has  been  laid  bare."    It 


THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  PHARAOHS.       129 

is  also  stated  that  some  of  the  bricks  are  of  a  su- 
perior and  others  of  an  inferior  quality,  some  with 
straw  and  others  without,  or  at  least  without  the 
proper  quality  and  quantity.  It  was  bricks  for  this 
store-city  that  the  Israelites  had  to  furnish  in  un- 
diminished numbers  each  day,  even  after  govern- 
ment had  ceased  to  provide  straw,  and  they  had  to 
"  find  it "  as  best  they  could,  while  they  succeeded 
in  getting  only  "  stubble  for  straw."  What  a  con- 
firmation there  is  here  of  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic 
record ! 

The  other  store-city,  Raamses,  has  not  yet  been 
discovered,  but  a  statue  of  its  builder  has  been 
found.  It  is  a  colossal  figure  weighing  four  hun- 
dred tons,  having  been  cut  from  a  single  block  of 
stone.  This  bears  upon  its  girdle  the  name  of 
Barneses  the  Second  (or  Great).  Fragments  of 
another  still  larger  statue  of  this  monarch  have 
been  found  here  and  there,  and  we  are  informed 
that  if  the  scattered  pieces  were  put  together  they 
would  make  an  image  ninety  feet  high,  with  a 
weight  of  nine  hundred  tons.  On  so  large  a  scale 
did  Barneses  build,  and  he  built  by  his  Hebrew 
slaves  Pithom  which  has  actually  been  unearthed, 
and  Raamses,  bearing  his  name  and  likely  yet  to  be 
brought  to  light. 

But  why  speak  of  his  statues  and  monuments  when 
we  have  the  king  himself?  Among  the  mummies 
lately  unrolled  was  that  of  the  Pharaoh  who  knew 
not  Joseph.     Barneses,  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Oppres- 

y 


130  THE  BIBLE  VERIFIED. 

sion,  adorns  the  museum  at  Boolak.  His  funeral 
regalia,  the  cerements  of  death,  the  successive  band- 
ages were  removed  in  the  presence  of  a  distin- 
guished company  of  Egyptians,  Turks,  English- 
men and  representatives  of  other  nations.  Amid 
breathless  attention  the  old  tyrant  was  unwrapt, 
and,  entirely  stripped,  the  great  oppressor  of  the 
Israelites  lay  before  those  at  whose  mercy  he  was 
more  completely  even  than  were  at  his  mercy  the 
Hebrews  whose  lives  he  made  so  bitter  in  the  brick- 
yards. We  feel  the  reality  of  the  oppression  which 
drove  the  Israelites  into  rebellion  when  we  can  look 
upon  the  great  oppressor  himself.  It  gives  us  solid 
satisfaction  to  see  his  poor  mummy  examined  to-day 
as  a  curiosity. 

We  can  look  without  a  fear  upon  his  forehead, 
described  as  "  low  and  narrow ;"  his  eyebrows, 
"  thick  and  white ;"  his  small  eyes ;  his  aquiline 
nose ;  his  ears,  pierced  for  the  wearing  of  jewelry ; 
his  broad  shoulders ;  and  his  tall  frame,  over  six 
feet  in  height.  We  can  go  to  Egypt  and  see  all 
this — gaze  upon  the  great  Rameses.  Or  if  we  can- 
not take  the  trip  to  the  distant  land  of  the  Nile,  we 
can  at  least  get  a  photograph  of  this  ancient  mon- 
arch. Our  very  newspapers  contain  cuts  of  his 
mummied  head  and  shoulders.  Let  some  modern 
brickmaker  adopt  his  face  as  a  trade-mark  to  be 
stamped  upon  the  plastic  clay,  and  the  revenges 
of  time,  or  rather  of  Divine  Providence,  will  be 
complete.     The  mummied  remains  of  the  oppressor, 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  PHARAOHS.       131 

Rameses,  are  among  the  "  signs  and  wonders  upon 
Pharaoh  "  "  as  it  is  this  day."  These  are  no  an- 
cient, but  they  are  modern,  Egyptian  miracles  al- 
most. The  truth  in  the  case  of  the  Pharaohs  of 
the  Bible  is  stranger  than  fiction. 

4.  The  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus  itself  has  not  yet 
been  found.  We  know  who  he  was.  He  was  a 
son  of  Rameses,  and  was  called  Menephtah  the 
First,  Very  significantly,  a  monument  of  his  in 
the  Berlin  Museum  speaks  of  the  sudden  and  mel- 
ancholy death  of  a  son  of  his.  Could  this  calam- 
ity have  occurred  when  every  house  in  Egypt 
mourned  its  first-born  except  where  the  blood 
was  sprinkled  on  the  doorposts? 

Is  it  all  a  myth  about  the  ten  plagues  ?  Herod- 
otus even  speaks  of  a  judgment  visited  upon 
Menephtah.  Says  the  father  of  historians  of  this 
monarch :  "  He  impiously  hurled  a  spear  into  the 
overflowing  waves  of  the  river,  which  a  sudden 
wind  caused  to  rise  to  an  unusual  height ;"  and  for 
this  defiance  of  Deity  he  was  smitten  with  a  ten 
years'  blindness.  So  that,  according  to  this  pagan 
writer,  there  was  at  least  one  plague  inflicted  upon 
this  Pharaoh ;  and  indeed  the  plagues  were  ten  if 
the  number  of  years  be  taken  into  account.  From 
this  Greek  source  he  is  seen  to  have  had  just  the 
spirit,  proud  and  imperious,  which  the  Pharaoh  of 
the  Exodus  had. 

But  where  is  his  mummy  to  confirm  the  Bible 
story  regarding  his   career?     It  has  not  yet  been 


132  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

found,  and  perhaps  never  will  be,  for  all  his  host 
was  overthrown  in  the  Red  Sea,  and  he  himself 
may  also  have  perished  thus,  for  "  there  remained 
not  so  much  as  one  of  them,"  and  the  Psalmist 
says  God  "  overthrew  Pharaoh  and  his  host  in  the 
Red  Sea."  To  be  sure,  his  body  may  have  been 
recovered  and  embalmed,  and  perhaps,  as  some 
biblical  scholars  maintain,  he  himself  was  not 
drowned  at  all,  the  scriptural  expression  being 
simply  one  of  the  common  universals ;  but  it  is 
at  least  significant  that  though  we  have  the  mummy 
of  his  father  and  grandfather,  his  is  missing.  His 
un embalmed  body  may  be  lying  at  the  bottom  of 
the  Red  Sea.  The  very  absence,  therefore,  of  the 
mummy  of  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus  is  confirm- 
atory of  God's  word.  His  absence  from  the  mu- 
seum on  the  banks  of  the  Nile  is  as  significant  as  the 
presence  of  others.  "  Signs  and  wonders  upon 
Pharaoh"  "  as  it  is  this  day  "  !  That  vacant  niche 
at  Boolak  is  a  sign  and  wonder. 

5.  A  mono;  the  most  natural  of  mummied  faces 
lately  brought  to  light  is  that  of  Pinotem  the  Sec- 
ond, whose  portrait  appears  in  Harpei%ys  Monthly 
for  July,  1882.  The  mummies  of  his  wife  and 
infant  child  are  also  among  the  recent  discoveries. 
The  babe,  only  sixteen  inches  long  and  reposing  in 
the  same  sarcophagus  as  the  queen,  tells  the  sad 
story  of  their  deaths,  perhaps  three  thousand  years 
ago.  The  little  one  barely  saw  the  light  of  earth, 
and  then  lay  down  with  the  mother  in  the  long 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  PHARAOHS.       133 

sleep  of  death.  There  is  pathos  in  such  revela- 
tions. 

Now,  some  scholars  identify  Pinotem  with  the 
Pharaoh  whose  daughter  Solomon  married.  If 
this  be  correct,  we  may  say  with  the  honorary  sec- 
retary of  the  Egypt  Exploration  Fund  (Amelia  B. 
Edwards),  and  therefore  eminent  authority,  u  It  is 
surely  a  strange  subject  for  reflection  that  while 
Solomon  and  all  his  glories  have  passed  away,  the 
father,  mother  and  infant  sister  of  his  Egyptian 
bride  may  be  seen  to  this  day  under  a  glass  case 
in  the  Boolak  Museum."  This  is  only  re-echoing 
Scripture  :  "  signs  and  wonders  upon  Pharaoh  "  u  as 
it  is  this  day." 

Finally,  what  further  signs  and  wonders  God  has 
in  store  for  the  strengthenino:  of  our  faith  we  do  not 
know.  Jacob  was  "  embalmed  "  in  Egypt,  and  he 
was  laid  away  in  the  cave  of  Machpelah.  Not 
since  the  Mohammedan  possession  of  this  sacred 
place  nor  within  the  memory  of  man  has  auy  one 
been  admitted  to  the  innermost  part  of  the  cave. 
If  entrance  ever  should  be  gained  thereto  in  the 
innermost  shrine,  said  Dean  Stanley,  "  one  at  least 
of  the  patriarchal  family  may  possibly  still  repose 
intact — the  embalmed  body  of  Jacob." 

So,  too,  the  "  bones"  of  Joseph,  which  were  so 
carefully  preserved  in  Egypt  during  the  long  sojourn 
of  his  descendants  there — those  bones  concerning 
which  he  gave  commandment  at  his  death  that  at 
the  departure  of  the  Israelites  for  the  promised  land 


134  %  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

they  should  be  taken  along — those  bones  which 
were  carried  up  and  down  for  forty  years  in  the 
wilderness,  and  which  were  subsequently  interred  by 
Joshua  at  Shechem,  to  be  transferred,  possibly  at  a 
later  date,  according  to  the  Mussulman  tradition, 
to  the  cave  of  Machpelah, — those  "  bones  "  of  Jo- 
seph, his  embalmed  body,  may  yet  be  found.  Just 
as  strange  things  have  happened  in  the  discovery 
of  the  mummy  of  the  Pharaoh  who  "  knew  not 
Joseph." 

But  signs  and  wonders  enough  we  have  had  to 
make  us  see  the  truth  of  religion  and  of  the  Bible,  and 
to  make  us  realize  the  vanity  of  all  that  is  earthly. 
Of  the  four  to  seven  hundred  million  mummies  re- 
posing in  the  sandy  soil  of  Egypt,  we  have  been 
looking  at  only  a  few ;  but  surely  these  have  been 
sufficient  to  impress  us  with  the  thought  of  human 
mortality.  Soon  we  all  shall  be  sleeping  in  the 
dust  of  the  earth,  and  centuries  hence  our  bones 
may  be  lying  in  museums.  The  "  signs  and  won- 
ders upon  Pharaoh "  "  as  it  is  this  day "  should 
teach  us  the  solemn  lesson  of  the  frailty  of  our 
bodies,  and  should  lead  us  to  give  due  attention  to 
the  immortal  part.  During  the  thirty  to  forty  cen- 
turies through  which  the  mummies  of  the  Pharaohs 
have  come  down  to  us, — during  this  long  sleep  of 
physical  death  the  Pharaohs  themselves,  their  im- 
mortal spirits,  have  been  living  somewhere.  When 
not  forty  but  a  thousand  and  a  million  centuries  of 
eternity  have  rolled   away,  our  souls  will  still  be 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  PHARAOHS.       135 

in  existence.  How  impressive  the  fact  of  such  a 
sweep  of  centuries !  Let  us  prepare  for  the  endless 
future,  for  God  will  get  him  a  name  upon  all  who 
are  enemies  to  spiritual  Israel,  and  who  deal  proudly 
against  the  Church  of  Christ  founded  on  apostles 
and  prophets. 


CHAPTER  X. 

ELEVATING  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

"  Thy  word  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet, 
And  light  unto  my  path.— Ps.  119  :  105. 

WHEREVER  the  Bible  goes  it  dissipates  dark- 
ness. Its  elevating  influence  is  unquestioned. 
Let  a  traveler  in  a  wild,  forsaken  country  put  up 
for  the  night  in  an  out-of-the-way,  suspicious-look- 
ing house,  and  he  might  feel  uneasy  about  his  life 
and  money.  But  let  the  good  old  Book  be  taken 
down,  and  let  the  head  of  the  family  reverently 
read  therefrom  in  evening  worship,  and  one  would 
fear  no  longer;  he  would  go  to  his  rest  with  a 
feeling  of  perfect  safety.  An  anecdote  is  related 
of  some  skeptical  sailors,  of  their  being  wrecked 
on  an  isle  of  the  sea,  and  of  how  they  were  afraid 
of  being  eaten  by  cannibals  till  some  of  them, 
creeping  cautiously  from  the  shore  to  the  top  of  a 
hill,  saw  in  the  valley  below  the  spire  of  a  Christian 
church,  whereupon  they  leaped  to  their  feet,  and 
called  to  their  fellows  that  it  was  all  right.  Why 
that  sudden  sense  of  security?  Because  even  those 
infidels  knew  that  where  the  Bible  and  the  church 
were,  manners   would  be   humanized.     These   are 

136 


ELEVATING  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BIBLE.     137 

practical  tests  to  show  the  real  divineness  of  the 
Scriptures.  Now  let  us  note  the  elevating  influence 
of  the  Bible  along  certain  great  lines. 

1.  Not  to  discuss  the  gradual  undermining  of 
slavery  since  the  introduction  of  New-Testament 
ideas  of  brotherhood,  till,  instead  of  two  bondmen 
to  one  freeman  throughout  the  Roman  empire  at 
the  advent  of  Christ,  human  bondage  is  now 
practically  extinct  throughout  Christendom, — with 
this  barest  allusion,  passing  over  a  recognized  ref- 
ormation that  has  been  wrought  by  scriptural 
teaching  along  the  line  of  individual  liberty,  mark 
the  change  that  has  taken  place  with  reference  to 
childhood.  Every  reader  of  classical  literature  is 
acquainted  with  the  ancient  practice  of  exposing 
infants.  Paris,  who  abducted  the  beautiful  Helen 
and  thus  brought  on  the  Trojan  war,  was  in  infancy 
abandoned  on  Mount  Ida.  Romulus  and  Remus, 
the  founders  of  the  Eternal  City,  wrere,  according  to 
the  traditional  story,  thrown  into  the  Tiber.  Plato, 
in  stating  his  doctrine  of  the  community  of  families, 
says :  "  Their  children  are  also  common,  and  no 
parent  is  to  know  his  child  nor  any  child  his 
parent."  And  what  was  to  be  the  disposition  of 
the  little  ones  in  the  ideal  republic?  Why,  this : 
"  The  proper  officers  will  take  the  offspring  of  the 
good  parents  to  the  peu  or  fold,  and  there  they  will 
deposit  them  with  certain  nurses  who  dwell  in  a 
separate  quarter ;  but  the  offspring  of  the  inferior, 
or  of  the  better  when  they  chance  to  be  deformed, 


138  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

they  will  conceal  in  some  mysterious,  unknown 
place.  Decency  will  be  respected."  That  is  from 
Plato,  whom  Joseph  Cook  places  among  the  celes- 
tials. Then  nursing-mothers  were  to  be  taken  to 
the  fold  under  such  precautions  as  to  prevent  any 
recognition  of  their  own  children. 

But  most  to  be  pitied  were  the  poor  waifs  who 
were  cast  out  to  be  the  victims  of  the  weather  or 
of  wild  beast,  or  to  be  reared  for  slavery,  and  often 
the  brothel,  by  any  who  might  choose  to  bring 
them  up  to  years  of  maturity.  Aristotle  advocated 
the  inhuman  custom  of  exposure.  "  Let  it  be  the 
law,"  he  said,  "  that  nothing  imperfect  or  maimed 
shall  be  brought  up."  Plutarch  mentions  "  a  sort 
of  chasm "  into  which  helpless  infants  were  cast. 

When  the  great  Roman  general  Germanicus  died, 
the  event  was  commemorated  by  imposing  civic 
and  religious  rites,  and  among  the  honors  to  the 
renowned  dead  were,  says  Suetonius  the  Latin 
historian,  "  new-born  infants  exposed."  How  dif- 
ferent from  the  part  taken  by  children  in  connection 
with  the  death  of  General  Grant,  upon  whose 
coffin  was  affectionately  laid  by  them  a  wreath  of 
oak-leaves  which  they  had  gathered  out  of  the 
woods,  and  which  by  direction  of  the  family  was 
proudly  carried  in  the  great  funeral  procession  in 
New  York,  in  one  of  the  grandest  pageants  the 
world  has  ever  witnessed  ! 

What  a  transformation  Christianity  has  wrought 
in  the  estimation  placed   upon  childhood  !     Ever 


ELEVATING  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BIBLE.     139 

since  the  Babe  of  Bethlehem  was  cradled  in  a 
manger,  and  ever  since  as  a  man  he  said,  "  of  such 
is  the  kingdom,"  little  children  have  been  more 
honored  and  more  tenderly  loved  and  nurtured. 
The  parental  relation  has  been  dearer ;  motherhood 
has  meant  a  great  deal  more.  Unlike  Plato's 
republic,  which  was  inimical  to  childhood,  unlike 
the  pagan  world  generally  with  its  exposure  of 
infants,  the  millennium  of  Scripture  is  when  "  a 
little  child  shall  lead  them,"  while  of  the  New  Je- 
rusalem the  prophet  says,  "  And  the  streets  of  the 
city  shall  be  full  of  boys  and  girls  playing  in  the 
streets  thereof."  Such  instructions,  coming  with  the 
authority  of  inspiration,  have  revolutionized  public 
sentiment  relative  to  infancy  and  childhood. 

2.  The  Bible  has  also  elevated  woman.  Grecian 
and  Roman  womanhood  is  not  to  be  admired.  To 
be  sure,  there  were  some  pure  and  beautiful  charac- 
ters. Greece  boasted  a  Penelope,  who  accepted  the 
proposal  of  marriage  from  Ulysses  by  covering  her 
face  with  a  veil  to  hide  her  blushes,  and  who  re- 
jected all  suitors  during  the  twenty  years'  absence 
of  her  husband  at  the  Trojan  War,  remaining 
faithful  in  the  hope  of  his  return,  in  which  she  was 
not  disappointed.  Rome,  too,  had  a  Cornelia,  who 
in  an  early  widowhood  refused  many  advantageous 
offers  (one  from  a  king)  that  she  might  devote  her- 
self entirely  to  her  children ;  and  when  a  caller 
desired  to  see  her  jewelry,  in  her  two  boys,  invited 
in  for  the  purpose,  she  showed  "  her  jewels."     But 


140  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

these  are  solitary  examples.  The  prevailing  type 
of  womanhood  was  that  of  worldliness  and  wicked- 
ness, with  no  high  aim  in  life.  Dress  and  dinner- 
party, theatre  and  circus,  absorbed  the  feminine 
attention. 

A  wife  of  Caligula  the  emperor  on  one  wedding 
occasion  wore  a  set  of  emeralds  worth  two  millions 
of  dollars.  One  of  the  wives  of  Nero,  says  Pliny, 
"  was  accustomed  to  have  her  daintier  mules  shod 
with  gold."  In  the  train  of  such  unnatural  ex- 
travagance followed  immoralities  and  infidelities 
which  finally  broke  up  the  family  and  destroyed 
the  state. 

The  biblical  idea  of  wedlock,  the  divine  order 
of  things,  is  indicated  by  the  one  man  and  one 
woman  placed  in  Eden.  God  evidently  intended 
marriage  to  be  monogamous.  Polygamy  sprang 
up,  and  was  practiced  even  by  Old-Testament 
saints,  but  this  was  a  departure  from  the  original 
intent,  and  was  expressly  attributed  to  the  hardness 
of  the  people's  hearts  by  Christ,  who  restored  the 
marriage  relation  to  its  primeval  condition,  making 
again  the  twain  one. 

Turn  now  to  Greece,  and  what  was  its  ideal  re- 
lation between  man  and  woman  ?  Let  Plato,  the 
greatest  of  its  moral  philosophers,  answer.  In  the 
portrayal  of  his  model  republic,  in  the  description 
of  his  Utopia,  he  proposes  a  community  of  wives. 
"  As  among  other  animals,  so  also  among  men,"  is 
the  exact  wording  of  the  plan.     We  stand  aghast 


ELEVATING  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BIBLE.     141 

at  the  proposition,  and  especially  when  he  writes 
calmly  of  improving  the  race  after  the  manner  of 
the  methods  pursued  with  "hunting-dogs"  and 
"birds."  "With  such  teaching  from  the  highest 
sources  it  is  not  strange  that  the  prominent  women 
of  Greece,  the  companions  of  statesmen  and  phil- 
osophers, were  the  Aspasias  and  Phrynes,  persons 
who  would  not  be  tolerated  in  decent  society  at 
present.  Such  at  that  time  had  their  witty  sayings 
collected,  and  statues  were  erected  to  their  memory 
by  an  admiring  public.  The  wife,  on  the  contrary, 
sank  into  obscurity.  She  was  relegated  to  practical 
slavery.  She  was  made  to  feel  her  inferiority.  "  Is 
there  a  human  being,"  asks  Socrates,  "  with  whom 
you  talk  less  than  with  your  wife  ?"  And  he  used 
to  go  and  talk  with  one  of  the  women  of  the  town. 
Perhaps  Xantippe  was  not  altogether  to  blame  for 
her  exhibitions  of  temper. 

In  Rome  it  was  no  better.  There  had  once  been 
domestic  excellence.  Indeed,  the  claim  was  that 
there  were  no  divorces  for  the  first  five  hundred 
years  of  Roman  history.  But  in  the  first  century 
of  our  era  such  a  state  of  innocence  was  only  a  dim 
and  distant  memory,  and  hence  Juvenal  says : 

"  Yes,  I  believe  that  chastity  was  known 
And  prized  on  earth  while  Saturn  filled  the  throne, 
"When  rocks  a  bleak  and  scanty  shelter  gave, 
AVhen  sheep  and  shepherds  thronged  one  common  cave, 
And  when  the  mountain-wife  her  couch  bestrewed 
With  skins  of  beasts,  joint  tenants  of  the  wood, 
And  reeds,  and  leaves  plucked  from  the  neighboring  tree." 


142  THE  BIBLE  VERIFIED. 

He  had  reason  for  such  a  lamentation,  since,  accord- 
ing to  his  testimony,  the  nuptial  garlands  were  not 
faded  often  till  marriage  had  given  place  to  divoice, 
and  since  one  woman  could  have  had  this  truthful 
inscription  on  her  tomb,  "  eight  husbands  in  five 
years."  Cicero  divorced  his  wife  with  whom  he 
had  lived  thirty  years,  and  married  a  young  woman 
of  wealth,  whom  in  turn  he  discarded.  Martial, 
who  was  born  a  few  years  after  the  Saviour's  death, 
mentions  in  one  of  his  epigrams  a  woman  who  mar- 
ried her  tenth  husband  within  a  month.  Seneca, 
contemporary  with  Paul,  makes  the  astounding 
declaration  that  there  are  "  distinguished  women 
of  noble  families"  who  u  reckon  their  years  not  by 
the  number  of  the  consuls,  but  by  that  of  their  hus- 
bands." Of  course  the  wife  sank  under  such  cir- 
cumstances. She  became  unworthy  of  notice.  Not 
so  very  incredible,  therefore,  is  the  information 
given  by  Plutarch  of  a  member  of  the  Senate  ex- 
pelled from  that  body  "  because,"  such  is  the  his- 
torian's precise  language,  "  in  the  presence  of  his 
daughter  and  in  open  day  he  had  kissed  his  wife." 
The  lordly  Roman,  no  more  than  the  Grecian, 
would  not  have  approved  of  the  sentiment  of 
Scripture : 

"  Her  husband  also,  and  he  praiseth  her,  saying, 
Many  daughters  have  done  virtuously, 
But  thou  excellest  them  all." 

According  to  the  pagan  idea,  the  wife  was  to  receive 


ELEVATING  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BIBLE.     143 

no  appreciative  word  or  caress.  She  was  to  be  kept 
suitably  humble.  By  cold  neglect  she  was  to  be 
taught  her  lower  position  in  the  scale  of  being. 
Then  in  the  name  of  a  hospitable  friendship  be- 
tween families,  and  under  the  form  of  religious 
worship  within  the  very  temples,  prevailed  the 
most  abominable  practices,  of  which  it  would  be  a 
shame  even  to  speak.  The  conjugal  relation  was 
thus  destroyed,  divorces  became  easy  and  immoral- 
ity swept  away  the  family. 

Christianity  wrought  a  great  transformation.  It 
elevated  women  to  companionship.  Our  Lord  did 
not  disdain  their  ministrations.  He  honored  them 
by  appearing  to  them  first  after  the  resurrection. 
Paul  rejoiced  to  find  in  them  his  first  converts,  and 
taught  that  there  was  in  Christianity  neither  male 
nor  female.  They  felt  a  new  dignity  in  being  thus 
recognized,  and  they  rose  under  the  encouragement 
step  by  step,  until  Libanius,  the  cultured  friend  of 
the  apostate  emperor  Julian,  once  exclaimed,  "What 
women  there  are  among  the  Christians  V  Such 
was  the  judgment  of  even  a  pagan  as  to  the  ele- 
vating influence  of  Bible-teaching  upon  woman- 
hood. 

3.  Consider  next  how  nations  have  been  lifted 
by  the  religion  of  the  Bible  from  barbarism. 
Wherever  the  Scriptures  are  read,  and  only  there, 
do  we  see  a  high  order  of  civilization.  Take  Eu- 
ropean countries,  and  we  find  enlightenment  graded 
according  to  the  knowledge  that  each  has  of  God's 


144  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

word.  Heathen  nations  begin  to  wake  up  intellect- 
ually and  commercially  as  soon  as  they  are  given  tb« 
Scriptures.  The  Sandwich  Islands  and  Madagascar 
are  striking  examples  of  the  elevating  influence  of 
the  Bible.  Nor  will  it  do  to  attribute  the  changed 
condition  of  things  to  the  general  spirit  of  progress. 
Let  a  mining-town  in  the  very  midst  of  civilization 
be  for  a  succession  of  years  without  the  preached 
word,  and  how  soon  the  people  degenerate,  until 
there  is  a  reign  of  terror,  of  gambling,  of  drunk- 
enness, of  lust,  of  anarchy !  But  let  the  gospel  be 
introduced,  and  communities  begin  improving;  and 
it  is  the  same  with  nations. 

Let  us  trace  the  development  under  biblical 
teaching  of  a  single  great  nation,  the  English. 
When  Caesar  landed  in  Britain,  55  B.  C,  he  found 
the  inhabitants  to  be  savages,  with  "  clothing  of 
skins."  Sometimes  they  were  not  as  richly  attired 
as  that  even,  for,  in  the  language  of  Cowper, 

"  Time  was  when  clothing  sumptuous  or  for  use, 
Save  their  own  painted  skins,  our  sires  had  none." 

When  the  Roman  general  Suetonius  about  60 
A.  D.  proposed  to  conquer  Britain,  he  was  surprised 
at  the  wild  appearance  of  the  natives  lining  the 
shore  and  ready  to  fight.  Women  mingled  with 
the  soldiers,  and,  swinging  their  flaming;  torches 
and  tossing  their  disheveled  hair,  they  ran  back- 
ward and  forward  and  shrieked  like  incarnate 
fiends.     The  Britons  were  nothing  less  than  savage 


ELEVATING  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BIBLE.     145 

tribes.  Their  religion  was  the  veriest  superstition. 
Sometimes  their  priests,  the  Druids,  offered  up  hu- 
man victims  to  the  imaginary  deities.  How  could 
people  be  reclaimed  from  such  degradation?  Why, 
the  religion  of  the  Bible  was  introduced,  and,  says 
Hume  himself,  they  made  great  " advances  toward 
arts  and  civil  manners." 

But  just  as  they  began  to  emerge  from  their  bar- 
barism there  came  apparent  disaster  in  the  immi- 
gration of  a  new  and  less-civilized  element  into  the 
country.  In  the  fifth  century  hordes  of  barbarians 
from  the  German  forests  crossed  the  sea  and  estab- 
lished themselves  in  Britain.  These  Angles  and 
Saxons  divided  the  country  up  among  themselves 
into  seven  separate  kingdoms.  Who  were  these 
Anglo-Saxons,  from  whom,  as  well  as  from  the 
Britons,  we  are  descended?  They  were  heathen 
tribes  which  fought  each  other,  much  as  our  Indians 
have  done.  Fighting  was  their  main  occupation 
for  several  generations,  but  their  contests  were  of 
so  little  account  as  hardly  to  deserve  historical  men- 
tion. Indeed,  Milton,  according  to  Hume,  says 
"  that  the  skirmishes  of  kites  and  crows  as  much 
merited  a  particular  narrative  as  the  confused  trans- 
actions and  battles  of  the  Saxon  Heptarchy  ;"  and 
the  historian  Knight  speaks  of  their  fierce  hostilities 
and  treacherous  alliances  affecting  us  "  little  more 
than  the  wars  and  truces  of  Choctaws  and  Chero- 
kees." 

Such  were  the  Anglo-Saxons,  who  were  below 
10 


146  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

the  Britons  even  in  point  of  civilization.  They 
nearly  extirpated  the  Christian  religion,  thereby 
causing  the  country  to  revert,  says  Hume,  to  its 
"ancient  barbarity."  Macaulay  refers  to  their 
coarseness  in  his  allusion  to  their  "  huge  piles 
of  food  and  hogsheads  of  strong  drink."  They 
had  but  little  more  refinement  than  brutes.  All 
that  was  fair  about  them  was  their  physical  features. 
They  had  long  flaxen  hair  aud  blooming  counte- 
nances, but  mentally,  socially  and  morally  they 
were  very  inferior,  and  the  cultivated  Roman 
looked  upon  them  about  as  we  look  upon  the 
negroes  of  Central  Africa.  Indeed,  these  heathen 
ancestors  of  ours  were  bought  and  sold  as  slaves, 
as  the  Africans  have  been  in  later  times. 

Connected  with  this  fact  is  the  familiar  but  ever- 
romantic  story  of  what  led  to  their  evangelization 
and  civilization.  A  pious  abbot  was  strolling  along 
the  streets  of  Rome.  He  stopped  at  the  market- 
place to  witness  the  sales.  Some  slaves  were  on  the 
auction-block,  and  he  was  struck  by  their  fresh, 
beautiful  faces,  and  when,  upon  inquiring  their 
nationality,  he  was  told  that  they  were  Angles,  he 
replied  with  that  famous  pun  which  has  come  down 
the  centuries,  that  they  would  more  properly  be  de- 
nominated angels  ;  and  he  was  interested  at  once  in 
their  religions  welfare.  When  he  afterward  sat  on 
the  pontifical  throne  as  Gregory  the  Great  he  re- 
solved to  send  missionaries  to  them  in  their  distant 
island  home. 


ELEVATING  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BIBLE.     147 

That  is  the  kind  of  ancestors  we  had,  and  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  cause  of  Christian  or  foreign 
missions  we  would  be  sitting  in  pagan  darkness, 
for  their  religion  was  gross  beyond  conception. 
They  had  numerous  gods,  to  whom  they  sacrificed 
not  only  animals,  but  human  beings.  Their  chief 
deity  was  the  god  of  war,  and  hence  the  better 
fighters  they  were  the  more  religious  they  were. 
Their  idea  of  Paradise  was  that  of  a  vast  hall  where 
they  could  recline  on  couches  and  drink  ale  from  the 
skulls  of  their  slain  enemies. 

But  the  religion  of  the  Bible  was  carried  to  these 
debased  Anglo-Saxons.  One  of  their  chiefs,  King 
Ethelbert  of  Kent,  had  married  a  French  princess 
who  was  a  Christian,  and  Queen  Bertha  was  allowed 
the  free  exercise  of  her  religion.  This  was  the 
opportune  time  chosen  by  Gregory,  but  when  his 
forty  missionaries,  headed  by  Augustine,  got  as  far 
as  France,  they  heard  such  frightful  things  about 
those  to  whom  they  were  going,  fearful  as  the  sto- 
ries of  modern  cannibalism,  that  they  begged  to  be 
released  from  the  perilous  mission.  They,  however, 
were  urged  to  proceed  with  their  lives  in  their 
hands,  and  they  did  brave  the  peril.  When  they 
reached  Britain  (597  A.  d.)  they  sought  an  audience 
with  King  Ethelbert  of  Kent.  The  cautious  mon- 
arch received  them  in  the  open  air,  lest  they  should 
influence  him  by  some  sort  of  magic.  He  kept 
them  at  a  safe  distance.  He  guarded  against  being 
mesmerized  or  bewitched  by  the  strange  foreigners, 


148  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

who,  however,  gradually  disarmed  him  of  fear  and 
gained  his  confidence,  till  eventually  he  became  a 
convert  to  Christianity,  his  wife's  religion.  Thus 
was  the  gospel  introduced  again  among  our  pagan 
ancestors,  and  even  the  great  infidel  historian  of 
England  pronounces  this  event  "  the  most  memor- 
able" in  the  reign  of  that  king.  The  leaven  spread 
to  the  other  divisions  of  the  Heptarchy,  and  in  664 
A.  D.  a  union  was  brought  about  between  the 
various  branches  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church  ;  and 
this  prepared  the  way  for  that  political  union  in 
827  A.  D.,  when,  under  Egbert,  the  seven  independ- 
ent kingdoms  were  consolidated  and  the  united 
country  was  first  called  Angle-land — that  is,  Eng- 
land— and  the  English  race  started  on  its  march  of 
amaziug  progress. 

What  lifted  those  warring  tribes  out  of  heathen- 
ism and  developed  and  cemented  them  into  a  great 
people  ?  The  Bible.  Into  Britons  and  Anglo-Sax- 
ons life  from  above  was  breathed,  and  the  mightiest, 
grandest  people  of  all  history  sprung  into  being. 
Every  new  incursion  of  Danes  or  Normans  was 
taken  up  under  the  power  of  the  gospel  and  uti- 
lized as  fresh  blood  to  be  sent  coursing  through  the 
body  politic.  There  have  been  revolutions  now 
and  then,  but  these  have  been  only  the  eruptions 
which  have  left  the  nation  healthier  and  stronger. 
Territory  has  been  added  to  territory,  till  English- 
speaking  people  to-day  control  a  scope  of  country 
simply  colossal  in  extent,  the  sun  never  setting  on 


ELEVATING  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BIBLE.     149 

the  worldwide  dominion  and  England's  drum-beat 
being  literally  heard  around  the  globe.  Art,  science, 
civilization  and  Christianity  keep  pace  with  the 
onward  movement  of  this  great  political  power. 
Isaiah  grows  eloquent  over  the  little  one  becoming 
a  thousand,  and  the  small  one  a  strong  nation, 
through  the  Lord's  hastening,  and  he  breaks  out, 
"  Who  are  these  that  fly  as  a  cloud,  and  as  the 
doves  to  their  windows  ?  Surely  the  isles  shall 
wait  for  Me,  and  the  ships  of  Tarshish  first."  The 
prophet  seems  almost  to  have  seen  the  white-sailed 
fleets  of  the  British  isles  riding  proudly  every  sea, 
speeding  over  vast  expanses  of  water  with  the  rapid 
flight  of  white  doves  before  a  storm,  and  with  the 
velocity  of  the  cloud  borne  swiftly  along  by  cy- 
clonic wind.  Out  of  savage  Britons  and  heathen 
Anglo-Saxons,  out  of  piratical  Danes  and  semi- 
civilized  Normans,  has  been  wrought  by  the  religion 
of  the  Bible  that  which  we  do  see.  God's  word  has 
been  the  lamp  and  light  by  which  this  national 
progress  has  been  made.  To  whatever  nation  it 
goes  it  has  the  same  elevating  influence,  and  even 
Darwin,  after  seeing  the  transformation  wrought  by 
the  gospel  on  certain  isles  of  the  sea,  became  a  reg- 
ular contributor  to  the  cause,  and  testified,  "  The 
lesson  of  the  missionary  is  that  of  the  enchanter's 
wand."  Let,  then,  this  magical  book  be  sent  around 
the  globe.  Glad  are  we  that  it  has  been  rendered 
into  three  hundred  and  sixty  tongues  and  dialects 
by  the  British  and   American  Bible  societies,  and 


150  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

let  there  be  no  halt  in  the  good  work  till  the 
"  blest  volume "  has  been  carried  in  the  vernac- 
ular to  every  kindred,  every  tribe,  on  this  terres- 
trial ball.  Each  of  us  may  well  say  with  Sir 
Walter  Scott  in  his  Journal,  published  in  1890,  "  I 
would,  if  called  upon,  die  a  martyr  for  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  so  completely  is  (in  my  poor  opinion) 
its  divine  origin  proved  by  its  beneficial  effects  on 
the  state  of  society." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  GOLDEN  CITY  OF 
BABYLON. 

"The  golden  city  ceased."— Isa.  14:  4. 

THE  reference  is  to  Babylon,  and  let  us  see 
how  the  word  of  God  regarding  it  has  been 
fulfilled.  There  is  no  more  fascinating  subject 
than  the  agreements  of  history  and  prophecy.  The 
faith  must  be  strengthened  when  prophets  foretold 
events  whose  actual  occurrence  historians  relate 
hundreds  of  years  afterward.  Babylon  is  only 
one  of  many  illustrations  of  the  exact  correspond- 
ence between  scriptural  prediction  and  historical 
fact. 

The  former  glory  of  the  city  and  its  present 
desolation  can  hardly  be  overstated.  It  is  well 
described  by  Isaiah  as  the  "golden  city"  and  as 
"  the  lady  of  kingdoms  "  and  as  the  "  beauty  of 
the  Chaldeans'  pride."  Herodotus,  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  later  and  an  eve- witness,  says  :  "  Its 
extent,  its  beauty  and  its  magnificence  surpass  all 
that  has  come  within  my  knowledge."  According 
to  this  writer,  it  was  laid  out  in  a  square  each  of 
whose   sides    was   fifteen   miles   in    length.     That 

161 


152  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

makes  a  grand  total  of  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  square  miles,  whereas  London  has  only  one 
hundred  and  twenty-two  square  miles,  and  New 
York  only  forty-one.  Chicago  itself,  with  its  one 
hundred  and  seventy-four  square  miles  since  the 
recent  annexations  which  make  it  the  largest  city 
in  area  in  the  world,  is  not  so  large  as  ancient 
Babylon  was. 

The  glory  of  the  city  was  augmented  in  that, 
according  to  a  Roman  historian  (Quintus  Rufus 
Curtius),  nine-tenths  of  all  the  enclosed  space  con- 
sisted of  gardens  and  meadows  and  parks.  It  was 
even  said  to  contain  tillable  land  enough  to  support 
its  inhabitants  in  a  time  of  siege.  It  was  a  great 
country-city.  Its  streets  crossed  each  other  at  right 
angles,  and  were  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  broad, 
and  were  lined  with  elegant  residences  three  and 
four  stories  high. 

Its  political  supremacy  was  once  such  that  Jere- 
miah could  call  it  the  "  hammer  of  the  whole  earth," 
to  "  break  in  pieces "  whatever  it  smote.  When 
the  Mohammedans  in  the  eighth  century  swept  over 
Spain,  and  were  moving  on  to  the  conquest  of  Eu- 
rope, there  met  the  hitherto  invincible  Moslems  a 
hero  who  dealt  such  sturdy  blows  that  he  has  ever 
since  been  known  as  Charles  Martel,  which,  being 
interpreted,  is  "  Charles  the  Hammer."  The  vigor 
of  his  arm  beat  back  the  Saracen  power  and  saved 
Christendom.  He  struck  hard  and  gained  a  proud 
title,  which,  however,  Babylon  centuries  before  had 


THE  BIBLE  AND  BABYLON.  153 

won  in  that  it  was  called  the  "hammer  of  the  whole 
earth." 

But  what  was  to  be  the  fate  of  this  strong  and 
beautiful  city  ?  Hear  the  language  of  Jeremiah  : 
"Ami  Babylon  shall  become  heaps,  a  dwelling- 
place  for  jackals,  an  astonishment,  and  an  hissing, 
without  inhabitant."  Xo  less  explicit  was  Isaiah, 
who  said,  "It  shall  never  be  inhabited,  neither 
shall  it  be  dwelt  in  from  generation  to  generation  : 
neither  shall  the  Arabian  pitch  tent  there  ;  neither 
shall  shepherds  make  their  flocks  to  lie  down  there. 
But  wild  beasts  of  the  desert  shall  lie  there ;  and 
their  houses  shall  be  full  of  doleful  creatures  ;  and 
ostriches  shall  dwell  there,  and  satyrs  shall  dance 
there.  And  wolves  shall  cry  in  their  castles,  and 
jackals  in  the  pleasant  palaces."  Has  this  utter 
forsakenness  overtaken  the  golden  city?  As  early 
as  20  B.  c,  Strabo  speaks  of  the  site  of  Babylon 
as  a  "  vast  desolation."  Jerome  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury of  our  era  declares  that  it  was  the  hunting- 
ground  of  the  Persian  monarchs.  Rawlinson  in 
his  Ancient  Monarchies  says:  "Vast  heaps  or 
mounds,  shapeless  and  unsightly,  are  scattered 
at  intervals  over  the  entire  region  where  it  is 
certain  that  Babylon  anciently  stood."  Do  you 
wish  the  testimony  of  an  eminent  archaeologist 
who  has  personally  been  on  the  ground  and  ex- 
plored the  ruins  ?  "  The  site  of  Babylon,"  says 
Layard,  "is  a  naked  and  hideous  waste."  "Owls," 
he  says,  "start  from  the  scanty  thickets,  and  the 


154  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

foul  jackal  stalks  through  the  furrows."  An 
English  consul  (C.  J.  Rich,  1811)  testifies:  "There 
are  many  dens  of  wild  beasts  in  various  parts,  in 
one  of  which  I  found  the  bones  of  sheep  and  other 
animals,  and  perceived  a  strong  smell  like  that  of 
a  lion.  I  also  found  quantities  of  porcupine-quills, 
and  in  most  of  the  cavities  are  numbers  of  bats  and 
owls."     Verily  the  golden  city  has  ceased  ! 

If  we  enter  into  details,  we  shall  see  the  same 
wonderful  verification  of  the  word  spoken  of  old 
by  the  Lord.  There  is  not  merely  a  general,  but 
there  is  a  specific,  fulfillment  of  the  prophetic. 

1.  One  of  the  marked  features  of  Babylon  was 
its  system  of  irrigation.  Through  the  centre  of 
the  city  flowed  the  Euphrates,  a  river  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  wide,  "  and  its  depth  such,"  said  Xenophon, 
"  that  of  two  men  standing,  the  one  upon  the  other, 
the  uppermost  would  not  appear  above  the  water. 
So  that  the  river  afforded  a  better  defense  to  the 
city  than  its  walls."  Canals,  broad  and  sometimes 
navigable,  were  cut  in  every  direction.  An  im- 
mense artificial  lake  was  dug  west  of  the  city. 
This  was  thirty-five  feet  deep  and  one  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  in  circuit,  or  forty  miles  square.  Into 
this  the  whole  river  could  be  turned  if  at  any  time 
a  dry  river-bed  was  desired  for  mechanical  con- 
structions. Very  properly  was  the  city  thus 
addressed  by  Jeremiah:  "O  thou  that  dwellest 
upon  many  waters,"  while  the  Jewish  captives  said 
plaintively, 


THE  BIBLE  AND  BABYLON.  155 

"By  the  rivers  of  Babylon, 
There  we  sat  down,  yea,  we  wept, 
"When  we  remembered  Zion." 

But  what  said  Jehovah  of  this  extensive  system  of 
irrigation  ? — u  I  will  dry  up  her  sea,  and  make  her 
fountain  dry."  Long  ago  Diodorus,  of  the  age  of 
the  first  Caesars,  referred  to  the  canals  being  filled 
with  alluvial  deposits,  while  what  had  been  a  fertile 
garden  was  converted  into  a  marsh  ;  and  it  remains 
to  this  day,  according  to  the  modern  traveler,  a 
"desert,"   no  longer  blossoming  as  the  rose. 

2.  Take,  again,  those  wralls  which  Herodotus 
says  were  over  three  hundred  feet  high  and  over 
eighty  feet  wide — those  walls  upon  which,  between 
the  battlements,  four-horse  chariots  could  meet  and 
pass  without  colliding.  Consider  also  those  hun- 
dred gates  of  brass  which  the  father  of  historians 
mentions.  Surely  such  substantial  works  would 
endure.  Nay,  Jeremiah  cries,  "  her  walls  are 
thrown  down."  This  prophet  is  still  more  definite 
when  he  says,  "  The  broad  walls  of  Babylon  shall 
be  utterlv  overthrown,  and  her  high  o;ates  shall  be 
burned  with  fire."  Have  those  splendid  fortifica- 
tions survived  in  spite  of  Heaven's  malediction? 
Listen  to  a  recent  visitor  (Bishop  J.  P.  Newman) 
to  these  historic  scenes  :  "  To-day  can  be  seen,  and 
only  here  and  there,  low,  shapeless,  detached  mounds 
where  once  the  proud  walls  stood."  Our  very 
Bible  Dictionary  says  :  "  Babylon  has  been  a  quarry 
from    which    all   the   tribes   in   the   vicinity  have 


156  THE  BIBLE  VERIFIED. 

perpetually  derived  the  bricks  with  which  they 
have  built  their  cities."  The  fortificatious  are  all 
gone. 

3.  But  there  was  a  massive  temple  in  the  city. 
Has  it,  like  the  Pantheon  of  Rome,  come  down  to 
the  present  ? 

It  is  Herodotus  who  tells  us  of  a  temple  of  the 
god  Bel  eight  stories  high,  with  a  winding  staircase 
running  around  the  outside  clear  to  the  top,  which 
was  surmounted  by  statues,  one  of  them  forty  feet 
in  height.  Here  treasures  are  said  to  have  accu- 
mulated to  the  estimated  value  of  more  than  six 
hundred  millions  of  dollars.  Here,  we  learn  from 
the  sacred  historian,  were  stored  the  vessels  taken 
from  Jerusalem,  for  the  record  reads,  "  Nebuchad- 
nezzar also  carried  off  the  vessels  of  the  house  of 
the  Lord  to  Babylon,  and  put  them  in  his  temple  at 
Babylon."  This  may  have  been  the  tower  of 
Babel,  which,  you  recollect,  was  to  "  reach  unto 
heaven,"  and,  though  it  was  not  completed  at  the 
time  on  account  of  the  confusion  of  tongues,  it 
appears  to  have  been  a  cherished  project  afterward, 
for  Isaiah  seems  to  have  it  in  mind  when  he 
represents  Babylon  as  saying,  "  I  will  ascend  into 
heaven,  I  will  exalt  my  throne  above  the  stars  of 
God." 9  This  temple  of  Bel  is  described  by  Herod- 
otus, who  makes  it  rise  to  the  height  of  six  hundred 
feet,  which  is  higher  than  St.  Peter's  at  Rome  (four 
hundred  and  forty-eight  feet),  or  St.  Paul's  at 
London  (four  hundred  and  four  feet),  or  the  Ca- 


THE  BIBLE  AS1)  BABYLON.  157 

thedral  at  Strasburg  (four  hundred  and  sixty-one 
feet),  or  the  Capitol  at  Washington  (three  hundred 
and  fifty  feet),  or  the  Washington  Monument  (five 
hundred  and  fifty-five  feet)  ;  it  is  surpassed  in  height 
only  by  the  Eiffel  Tower  at  Paris,  which  springs 
into  the  air  one  thousand  feet. 

"What  says  prophecy  of  this  imposing  structure 
of  old  devoted  to  the  degrading  and  licentious  wor- 
ship of  the  god  Bel  ?  Jeremiah  exclaims,  "  Baby- 
lon is  taken,  Bel  is  put  to  shame  ";  "  And  I  will  do 
judgment  upon  Bel  in  Babylon,  and  I  will  bring 
forth  out  of  his  mouth  that  which  he  hath  swallowed 
up."  Did  this  receiver  of  rich  treasures  have  to 
disgorge  ?  Herodotus  says  that  Xerxes  plundered 
this  temple.  Ezra  says,  "  And  the  gold  and  silver 
vessels  also  of  the  house  of  God,  which  Nebuchad- 
nezzar took  out  of  the  temple  that  was  at  Jerusalem, 
and  brought  them  into  the  temple  of  Babylon, 
those  did  Cyrus  the  king  take  out  of  the  temple  of 
Babylon."  Some  at  least  of  the  six  hundred  mil- 
lions of  treasures  which  had  been  swallowed  up 
were  taken  by  Xerxes,  and  the  holy  vessels  which 
had  been  swallowed  up  were  removed  at  the  com- 
mand of  Cyrus  and  restored  to  Jerusalem.  Well 
did  Isaiah  prophesy,  "  Bel  boweth  down,"  while 
Jeremiah  declared,  "  Though  Babylon  should  mount 
up  to  heaven,  and  though  she  should  fortify  the 
height  of  her  strength,  yet  from  me  shall  spoilers 
come  unto  her,  saith  the  Lord ; "  and  it  was  even 
so.     Not  even  the  completed  tower  of  Babel,  not 


158  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

even  this  temple  of  Bel  with  its  eight  stories  tower- 
ing up  to  an  altitude  of  nearly  six  hundred  feet, 
not  even  this  splendid  edifice  of  the  golden  city, 
could  resist  the  decree  of  God,  for  the  traveler  of 
to-day  (Bishop  Newman)  sees  it  in  the  mound,  Birs 
Nimroud,  "  rising  suddenly  out  of  the  desert  plain, 
a  riven,  fragmentary,  blasted  pile,"  looming  "  up  a 
vast  mass  of  shapeless  ruins,  as  when,  by  some 
mighty  convulsion  of  nature,  temples  are  thrown 
on  temples  and  towers  are  piled  on  towers."  Such 
are  the  words  of  one  who  has  been  an  observer 
of  what  he  so  vividly  portrays.  Verily  Bel  ex- 
alted to  heaven  has  bowed  down.  So  utter  was 
the  ruin  that  when  Alexander  the  Great  visited 
it  he  employed  ten  thousand  men  two  months  to 
clear  away  the  rubbish  preparatory  to  rebuilding, 
and  then  the  task  was  abandoned  while  yet  a 
beginning  had  scarcely  been   made.10 

4.  The  palace  of  Nebuchadnezzar  (the  modern 
Kasr)  has  fared  no  better — the  palace  whose  outer 
circumference  was  six  miles,  whose  inner  walls  were 
of  colored  bricks  upon  which  were  depicted  such 
hunting-scenes  as  a  man  thrusting  his  spear  through 
a  lion  and  a  woman  on  horseback  hurling  her  lance 
at  a  leopard — fitting  representations  for  a  city 
founded  by  Nimrod  the  mighty  hunter. 

Within  this  palace  were  the  famous  "hanging 
gardens,"  covering  three  and  a  half  acres,  erected 
by  the  king  for  his  homesick  queen,  who  had  come 
from  a  mountainous  country  and  who  longed  for 


THE  BIBLE  AND  BABYLON.  159 

the  hills  of  her  native  land.  She  had  an  artificial 
hill  made  for  her  with  a  succession  of  terraces,  each 
watered  by  machinery  drawing  the  supply  up  from 
the  Euphrates,  and  distributing  it  to  delicate  flowers 
and  to  enormous  trees  rooted  in  hollow  piers  filled 
with  mould.  By  marble  steps  the  queen  could  ascend 
this  mountain,  which  towered  above  the  high  walls 
in  the  most  picturesque  manner ;  she  could  recline 
during  the  heat  of  the  day  in  romantic  arbors  on 
the  hillside.  Like  Nero's  celebrated  Golden  House, 
which  contained  within  its  spacious  area  cornfields, 
woods  and  a  lake,  Nebuchadnezzar's  palace  contained 
a  mountain. 

It  may  have  been  here  where  Nebuchadnezzar 
walked  and  viewed  the  city  w7hen  he  said,  "  Is  not 
this  great  Babylon  which  I  have  built  for  the  royal 
dwelling-place  by  the  might  of  my  power  and  for 
the  glory  of  my  majesty  ?"  It  was  for  his  impiety 
on  this  occasion  that  he  was  stricken  with  insanity, 
to  wander  for  a  while  a  lunatic,  perhaps  on  this 
very  mountain,  his  body  wet  with  the  dew  of 
heaven,  his  hair  grown  like  eagles'  feathers,  his 
nails  like  birds'  claws,  while  he  ate  grass  as  oxen. 
It  was  probably  in  this  palace  with  its  hanging 
gardens  that  Belshazzar  feasted  a  thousand  of  his 
lords,  and  saw  on  the  wall,  not  a  hunting-scene,  but 
the  fingers  of  a  man's  hand  writing  his  death- 
sentence.  It  may  have  been  here  where  Daniel 
faced  both  these  great  monarchs,  and  told  them 
boldly  of  their  sins;  and  to  commemorate  possibly 


1G0  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

his  rescue  from  the  den  of  lions  he  may  have  seen 
in  some  conspicuous  spot  the  still-existing  sculptured 
lion,  about  thirteen  feet  long  and  ten  feet  high, 
standing  over  a  prostrate  man  with  outstretched 
arms ;  he  may  have  seen  this  great  work  of  art 
which  has  been  unearthed  in  these  latter  days. 
Grander  than  the  temple  of  Bel  was  this  palace  with 
its  artificial  mountain,  which  the  Greeks  called  one 
of  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world. 

And  did  prophecy  doom  this  to  destruction?  It 
is  Jeremiah  who  speaks  thus  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  :  "  Behold,  I  am  against  thee,  O  destroying 
mountain,  saith  the  Lord,  which  destroyest  all  the 
earth  :  and  I  will  stretch  out  mine  hand  upon  thee, 
and  roll  thee  down  from  the  rocks,  and  I  will 
make  thee  a  burnt  mountain."  Such  was  the  pre- 
diction. What  is  the  fact  according  to  present 
explorations  ?  The  one  from  whom  we  have  quoted 
before,  and  who  has  stood  on  the  very  site  of  the 
once  superb  palace,  says  :  "  Everywhere  were  shape- 
less mounds,  covered  with  fragments  of  glass, 
marble,  pottery,  and  inscribed  bricks,  mingled  with 
a  white  nitrous  soil  whose  blanched  appearance 
completed  the  picture  of  desolation." 

5.  Once  more,  the  very  method  of  the  city's 
capture,  which  led  to  its  final  destruction,  is  fore- 
told. Isaiah  says,  "  Desolation  shall  come  upon 
thee  suddenly,  which  thou  knowest  not";  "Thus 
saith  the  Lord  to  his  anointed,  to  Cyrus,  .  .  .  The 
gates  shall  not  be  shut.  .  .  .  And  I  will  give  thee 


THE  BIBLE  AND  BABYLON.  161 

the  treasures  of  darkness."  Jeremiah  says,  "  I 
have  laid  a  snare  fur  thee,  and  thou  art  also  taken, 
O  Babylon,  and  thou  wast  not  aware  "  ;  "  Surely  I 
will  fill  thee  with  men,  as  with  the  canker-worm  ; 
and  they  shall  lift  up  a  shout  against  thee  "  ;  "  One 
post  shall  run  to  meet  another,  and  one  messenger 
to  meet  another,  to  show  the  king  of  Babylon  that 
his  city  is  taken  in  every  quarter  :  and  the  passages 
are  surprised ; n  "  And  I  will  make  drunk  her 
princes  and  wise  men,  her  governors  and  her 
deputies,  and  her  mighty  men ;  and  they  shall 
sleep  a  perpetual  sleep,  and  not  wake."  Such  are 
the  predictions  uttered  more  than  a  hundred  years 
before  Babylon  fell. 

What  are  the  facts?  Whether  Cyrus  himself 
was  the  divine  instrument,  or — which  is  more 
probable — whether,  as  Professor  Ladd  claims,  u  the 
name  of  Cyrus  in  Isaiah  is  used  as  a  title  of  the 
Persian  monarchs  in  general,"  and  whether  thus, 
as  is  likely,  Darius  was  the  one  who  took  the  city 
by  the  well-known  stratagem, — Eawlinson  the  his- 
torian gives  the  substantial  facts  as  follows  :  "  When 
all  was  prepared  Cyrus  determined  to  wait  for  the 
arrival  of  a  certain  festival,  during  which  the 
whole  populace  were  wont  to  engage  in  drinking 
and  reveling,  and  then  silently  in  the  dead  of  night 
to  turn  the  water  of  the  river  and  make  his  attack. 
.  .  .  Drunken  riot  and  mad  excitement  held  pos- 
session of  the  town  :  the  siege  was  forgotten  ; 
ordinary  precautions  were  neglected.  ...  In  silence 
XI 


162  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

and  darkness  the  Persians  watched  at  the  two  points 
where  the  Euphrates  entered  and  left  the  walls. 
Anxiously  they  noted  the  gradual  sinking  of  the 
water.  ...  At  last  shadowy  forms  began  to  emerge 
from  the  obscurity  of  the  deep  river-bed,  and  on 
the  landing-places  opposite  the  river-gates  scattered 
clusters  of  men  grew  into  solid  columns;  the  un- 
defended gateways  were  seized ;  a  war-shout  was 
raised;  the  alarm  was  taken  and  spread.  ...  In 
the  darkness  and  confusion  of  the  night  a  terrible 
massacre  ensued.  The  drunken  revelers  could 
make  no  resistance.  .  .  .  Bursting  into  the  palace, 
a  band  of  Persians  made  their  way  to  the  presence 
of  the  monarch  and  slew  him  on  the  scene  of  his 
impious  revelry.  Other  bands  carried  fire  and 
sword  through  the  town.  When  morning  came 
Cyrus  found  himself  undisputed  master  of  the 
city."  Thus  and  there  were  all  the  minutiae  of 
prophetic  utterance  fulfilled ;  thus  and  there  died 
Belshazzar.  There  two  centuries  later  died  Alex- 
ander the  Great  in  a  similar  revel,  after  trying  in 
vain  to  rebuild  the  city,  its  canals,  walls,  temple 
and  palace.  He  knew  not  that  the  decree  had 
gone  forth — "the  golden  city  ceased." 

Babylon  the  great  has  for  ever  fallen.  Prophecy 
has  become  history,  and  the  word  of  God  standeth 
sure,  and,  blessed  be  his  name,  "  the  Lord  knoweth 
them  that  are  his."  We  can  have  unfailing  con- 
fidence in  our  God,  who  will  bring  to  pass  whatever 
he  has  promised  as  well  as  threatened.     No  golden 


THE  BIBLE  AND  BABYLON.  163 

city  even,  no  principalities  or  powers  of  the  wicked 
one,  can  thwart  his  great  purpose  with  reference  to 
his  redeemed  children.  He  shall  bring  them  out  of 
the  great  tribulation.  He  shall  gather  his  elect  out  of 
a  world  that  is  passing  away.  What  encouragement 
here  for  Christians  !  and  what  warning  to  the  un- 
converted, who  are  certain  to  be  overwhelmed  at 
last !  The  golden  city  could  not  withstand  God,  who 
swept  it  "  with  the  besom  of  destruction. "  So  shall 
it  be  with  the  unrighteous,  but  God's  people  are 
eternally  safe.  They  are  journeying  to  a  golden 
city  which  shall  never  cease — a  city  of  jasper 
walls,  with  foundations  of  all  manner  of  precious 
stones,  with  gates  of  pearl,  whose  builder  and 
maker  is  God. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   COMMERCIAL  CITY  Ox' 
TYRE. 

"  Who  is  there  like  Tyre,  like  her  that  is  brought  to  silence 
in  the  midst  of  the  sea?"— Ezek.  27  :  32. 

WE  are  to  consider  this  commercial  city  at  cer- 
tain great  epochs,  and  we  are  to  see  how  va- 
rious prophecies  have  been  fulfilled  in  her  history. 
Ezekiel  devotes  nearly  three  chapters,  Isaiah  one 
chapter  and  other  prophets  a  few  verses  to  por- 
traying the  future  of  Tyre.  They  all  predict  the 
utter  desolation  that  was  to  come,  and  our  text 
might  have  constituted  the  sad  refrain  of  each  of 
the  inspired  writers :  "  Who  is  there  like  Tyre,  like 
her  that  is  brought  to  silence  in  the  midst  of  the 
sea  ?" 

I.  Such  a  fate  seemed  unlikely  in  view  of  the 
prosperity  and  splendor  of  the  city  at  the  time  of 
the  deliverance  of  the  prophecies. 

1.  Tyre  was  situated  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the 
Mediterranean,  being  built  both  on  the  mainland 
and  on  an  adjoining  island  half  a  mile  distant,  and 
it  was  in  the  latter  position  that  her  strength  and 

164 


THE  BIBLE  AND   TYRE.  165 

glory  specially  consisted.  She  might  have  been 
called,  as  Venice  has  been,  "the  bride  of  the  sea." 
She  is  addressed  as  "  at  the  entry  of  the  sea  "  and  as 
"  in  the  heart  of  the  seas,"  and  as  "the  stronghold 
of  the  sea."  She  could  not,  however,  conceive  of 
such  a  misfortune  as  being  "brought  to  silence  in 
the  midst  of  the  sea." 

She  had  stood  for  centuries,  and  she  seemed  abso- 
lutely secure  for  all  time.  She  boasted  of  her  an- 
tiquity, as  is  evident  from  the  question  which  Isaiah 
said  would  be  asked  in  subsequent  ages:  "  Is  this 
your  joyous  city,  whose  antiquity  is  of  ancient 
days?"  She  could  point  to  a  hoary  and  venerable 
past.  She  could  have  told  the  author  of  our  text 
that  a  thousand  years  before  Joshua  had  spoken  of 
"  the  fenced  city  of  Tyre."  She  could  have  re- 
minded the  prophet  that  four  hundred  years  back 
her  sovereign,  Hiram,  was  called  upon  by  Solomon 
for  help  in  building  the  temple.  When  Herodotus 
visited  her,  a  hundred  years  later  than  Ezekiel's 
time,  this  father  of  historians,  who  went  to  see  the 
famous  temple  erected  to  Hercules  in  that  city,  was 
told  by  the  Tyrian  priests  "  that  from  the  building 
of  Tyre  two  thousand  and  three  hundred  years  had 
elapsed."  With  so  many  centuries  of  happy  ex- 
istence the  proud  city  would  naturally  be  incred- 
ulous as  to  her  predicted  downfall.  She  was  accus- 
tomed to  say,  "  I  am  a  god,  I  sit  in  the  seat  of  God, 
in  the  midst  of  the  seas." 

Being  sea-girt,  she  considered  herself  as  impreg- 


166  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

liable  as  mighty  Sidon,  whose  daughter  she  was, 
and  whose  citizens  the  sacred  writer  had  in  mind 
when  he  spoke  of  people  dwelling  "  in  security, 
after  the  manner  of  the  Zidonians,  quiet  and  secure  ; 
for  there  was  none  in  the  land,  possessing  authority, 
that  might  put  them  to  shame  in  anything."  That 
is  the  way  the  Tyrians  felt — absolutely  secure  be- 
cause of  their  insular  position. 

2.  Besides,  they  were  strongly  fortified.  We 
know  what  their  walls  must  have  been  from  a 
single  stone  which  has  remained  to  this  day,  and 
which  measures  seventeen  feet  in  length  and  six 
and  a  half  feet  in  thickness.  Furthermore,  in 
recent  explorations  at  Jerusalem  a  shaft  has  been 
sunk  eighty  feet,  and  the  foundations  laid  by  Solo- 
mon have  been  disclosed,  and  some  of  these  stones 
are  twenty  to  twenty-six  feet  long.  With  reference 
to  these  we  are  informed  (Wright's  Ancient  Cities) : 
"  The  calcium  light  revealed  upon  them  Phoenician 
numerals,  letters  and  other  signs  in  red  paint,  which 
are  supposed  to  be  quarry-marks  made  by  Hiram's 
masons."  If  the  Tyrians  were  skillful  enough  to 
transport  all  the  way  to  Jerusalem  such  immense 
stones,  we  may  be  sure  their  fortifications  were 
massive,  and  sufficiently  so  to  make  their  overthrow 
apparently  impossible. 

3.  Thus  secure  from  surrounding  water  and 
mortar,  Tyre  prosecuted  business  with  an  enter- 
prise and  success  that  have  never  been  surpassed. 
Ezekiel  gives  a  whole  chapter  to  describing  her 


THE  BIBLE  AND   TYRE.  167 

commerce,  and  he  seems  to  weave  in  all  the  geo- 
graphical names  then  known  to  show  the  extent  of 
her  traffic  with  the  nations  of  earth.  Well  did 
Isaiah  call  her  merchants  "  princes,"  for  they 
bought  and  sold  everywhere.  They  sailed  the 
Black  Sea,  and  returned,  if  not  with  golden  fleeces 
for  which  the  first  Argonauts  sought,  at  least  with 
rich  treasures.  They  had  long  before  manned 
Solomon's  ships,  which  sped  down  the  Red  Sea, 
and  brought  back  from  India  not  only  the  gold  of 
Ophir,  but  also  all  manner  of  curious  things,  such 
as  apes  and  peacocks,  which  had  never  been  seen 
before  in  Palestine,  and  which  created  a  great 
sensation  there.  The  Tyrians  had  to  furnish  the 
sailors  for  these  celebrated  expeditions,  and  they 
never  ceased  to  enrich  themselves  from  the  distant 
lands. 

They  had  gone  all  over  the  Mediterranean. 
They  had  planted  a  powerful  colony  at  Carthage 
in  Northern  Africa.  They  had  extracted  wealth 
from  the  mines  of  Spain,  till  their  ships  of  Tar- 
shish  became  as  well  known  as  England's  East 
Indiamen  arc  to-day.  They  are  said  to  have  found 
silver  in  such  abundance  that  they  did  not  have 
room  to  store  it  away  in  their  vessels,  and  that  they 
might  utilize  every  inch  of  space  they  are  said  to 
have  used  the  precious  metal  for  their  anchors. 
At  any  rate,  according  to  Ezekiel,  the  rowing 
"benches"  were  of  "  ivory,"  while  "fine  linen 
with  broidered  work  from  Egypt"  constituted  their 


168  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

"sails/'  and  the  ship's  "awning"  was  made  of 
"  blue  and  purple  from  the  isles." 

Nay,  their  gay  merchantmen  ventured  out  through 
the  Pillars  of  Hercules;  they  ran  the  very  gauntlet 
of  what  was  then  a  Gibraltar  indeed  as  they  moved 
out  into  the  great  and  almost  unknown  Atlantic. 
Diodorus  Siculus  tells  of  their  reaching  what  seemed 
to  them  the  Isles  of  the  Blest,  and  the  Azores  or 
Canaries  in  their  tropical  beauty  must  have  seemed 
the  "dwelling  of  gods  rather  than  of  men."  They 
are  believed  to  have  gone  clear  to  the  British  isles, 
and  to  have  gotten  tin  at  Cornwall,  and  Herodotus 
speaks  of  their  getting  tin  from  "  the  ends  of  the 
earth,"  although  he  was  incredulous  about  what 
were  called  the  Tin  Islands  (Cassiterides). 

Nor  could  he  credit  what  was  a  fact,  that  these 
adventurous  navigators  before  his  day  had  sailed 
down  the  Red  Sea,  and  that  they  had  actually  gone 
round  the  southernmost  point  of  Africa,  and  had 
made  their  way  back  through  the  straits  opening 
from  the  Atlantic  into  the  Mediterranean.  He  re- 
lated how  on  his  visit  to  Tyre  the  Tynans  had  told 
him  of  their  having  reached  a  point  where  the  sun 
was  always  north  of  them,  where  the  shadows  were 
always  cast  in  one  direction.  "  For  my  part,"  he 
says,  "  I  do  not  believe  them  "  ;  and  yet  what  they 
told  him  about  the  sun  was  positive  proof  that  they 
had  rounded  the  cape,  thus  anticipating  by  more 
than  two  thousand  years  Yasco  da  Gama,  who  by 
the  same  exploit  in  these  comparatively  modern 


THE  BIBLE  AND   TTBE.  169 

times  so  astonished  all  Europe  and  gained  undying 
fame.  The  Tyrians  were  ahead  of  him  by  only 
two  millenniums;  that  is  all.  So  long  ago  did  they 
thoroughly  understand  the  seas  which  they  rode  in 
triumph  everywhere,  while  they  made  their  city  the 
wealthiest  that  ever  existed  as  they  gathered  from 
far  and  near  silver  and  gold,  iron,  tin  and  lead, 
emeralds,  rubies,  diamonds  and  "all  precious  stones." 
All  these  the  prophet  mentions,  besides  "  choice 
wares,  in  wrappings  of  blue  and  broidered  work, 
and  in  chests  of  rich  apparel  bound  with  cords." 
There  ought  to  be  mentioned  also  the  city's  great 
industry  of  extracting  dye  from  shellfish,  her  facto- 
ries for  this  purpose  being  so  numerous,  according 
to  Strabo,  as  to  fill  the  air  with  an  unpleasant 
odor.  But  a  vast  revenue  was  derived  from  this 
source.  Any  article  bearing  the  delicate  coloring 
of  Tyrian  skill  was  in  universal  demand.  Juvenal 
speaks  of  "  Tyrian  tapestry  "  as  something  partic- 
ularly fine.  Virgil  speaks  of  the  luxury  of  "  Tyr- 
ian purple  "  for  sleeping  apartments.  Homer,  ages 
before,  had  sung  of 

"Belts 
That,  rich  with  Tyrian  dye,  refulgent  glowed." 

While  Tyre  became  the  richest  and  most  splendid 
city  of  antiquity,  "  the  mart  of  nations,"  she  pur- 
sued her  commercial  ends  with  such  selfishness  and 
with  such  utter  disregard  of  God  that  she  was 
doomed  to  destruction.     She  had  a  form  of  godli- 


170  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

ness.  She  built  a  magnificent  temple  on  her  island, 
and  this  wonder  of  the  world  was  what  specially 
drew  Herodotus  to  the  city,  and  he  was  full  of  ad- 
miration for  two  colossal  columns  of  gold  and  eme- 
rald which  adorned  the  beautiful  structure.  He  may 
have  been  mistaken  in  the  material,  but  the  appear- 
ance was  that  of  two  massive  pillars  of  gold  and 
emerald.  So  that  the  Tyrians  had  a  form  of  godli- 
ness ;  they  had  a  house  of  worship  which  must  have 
rivaled  Solomon's  temple — which  must  have  equaled, 
if  it  did  not  surpass,  the  finest  edifices  in  which  the 
wealthy  now  meet. 

But  they  worshiped  Mammon  more  than  the  true 
God,  those  Tyrians  did,  as  people  often  do  yet. 
They  left  no  stone  unturned  to  heap  up  riches.  So 
selfishly  did  they  seek  gain  that  it  is  said  [American 
Cyclopaedia)  if  a  Phoenician  merchantman  bound 
for  some  land  of  mineral  wealth  should  find  that  a 
Roman  ship  was  following,  the  master  of  the  Tyrian 
vessel  would  run  his  craft  upon  the  rocks,  so  as  to 
lead  the  other  to  destruction,  and  on  returning  home 
the  loyal  citizens  of  Tyre  would  have  his  loss  made 
good  by  the  city  ;  so  determined  was  she  that  other 
people  should  not  learn  of  her  sources  of  wealth. 
The  story  is  not  incredible  when  we  are  informed 
by  the  prophet  that  at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
on  a  certain  occasion  Tyre  said  exultingly,  "  Aha, 
she  is  broken  that  was  the  gate  of  the  peoples ;  she 
is  turned  unto  me :  I  shall  be  replenished,  now  that 
she  is  laid  waste."     It  was  for  this  unworthy  spirit 


THE  BIBLE  AND  TYRE.  171 

that  the  doom  of  Tyre  was  pronounced.  She  was 
to  be  utterly  destroyed,  until  the  lamentation  should 
be,  "  Who  is  there  like  Tyre,  like  her  that  is  brought 
to  silence  in  the  midst  of  the  sea  ?" 

II.  We  will  now  turn  to  see  how  the  city,  not- 
withstanding her  strong  insular  position  and  her 
antiquity,  notwithstanding  her  massive  walls,  not- 
withstanding all  her  resources  which  she  possessed 
as  "  the  stronghold  of  the  sea,"  how  in  spite  of 
everything  and  contrary  to  all  human  probability, 
was  finally  leveled  to  the  ground.  We  will  note 
the  successive  steps  by  which  her  ruin  was  accom- 
plished. There  was  wheel  within  wheel,  but  the 
divine  purpose  went  straight  forward. 

1.  The  prophecies  were  fulfilled  in  part  by  the 
siege  of  Nebuchadnezzar.  The  protracted  nature 
of  this  siege  was  foretold  when  Ezekiel  said,  "  Every 
head  was  made  bald,  and  every  shoulder  was  peeled." 
Was  this  the  fact  ?  Josephus,  on  the  authority  of 
both  Greek  and  Phoenician  histories,  states  that  the 
siege  continued  thirteen  years.  Even  then  it  is 
said,  by  way  of  prediction,  "  yet  had  he  no  wages." 
Was  the  siege  practically  without  result?  was  it 
without  the  usual  spoil  for  the  conqueror?  It  is 
not  certain  that  the  city  was  really  taken.  Or  if  it 
was,  it  may  have  been  so  impoverished  as  to  have 
proved  disappointing  to  the  greed  of  the  victor,  who 
naturally  would  have  had  great  expectations  with 
reference  to  a  city  reputed  to  be  very  opulent. 

But  Jerome  would  seem  to  give  the  best  explana- 


172  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

tion  of  there  being  "  no  wages."  He  says,  on  the 
authority  of  Assyrian  histories,  that  when  the  Tyr- 
ians  found  further  resistance  would  be  useless,  "  they 
went  on  board  their  ships,  and  fled  to  Carthage  or 
to  some  islands  of  the  Ionian  and  ^Egean  seas  "  ; 
and  he  adds  that  they  took  their  valuables  along. 
They  were  not,  therefore,  totally  destroyed  yet — 
not  yet,  in  the  words  of  the  text,  "  brought  to 
silence  in  the  midst  of  the  sea."  But  they  were 
humbled  under  the  mighty  hand  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar. It  was  not  intended  in  the  providence  of 
God  that  utter  desolation  should  come  at  once. 

Isaiah  had  expressed  the  extent  of  the  humbling 
when  he  said,  "  Tyre  shall  be  forgotten  seventy 
years  " ;  that  is,  she  was  to  share  with  the  Jews 
the  Babylonian  captivity.  "  And  it  shall  come  to 
pass  after  the  end  of  seventy  years,"  the  prophet 
continues,  "  that  the  Lord  will  visit  Tyre,  and  she 
shall  return  to  her  hire,"  even  with  "all  the  king- 
doms of  the  world."  This  also  corresponds  with 
the  actual  course  of  events. 

2.  The  city  did  renew  her  prosperity,  and  two 
centuries  later  she  thought  she  was  strong  enough 
to  defy  Alexander  the  Great  as  she  had  done  the 
Assyrian.  She  was  not  only  seagirt,  but  she  was 
surrounded  with  walls  which  were  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  high  on  the  side  of  the  island  next  to 
the  mainland.  The  brilliant  defence  which  she 
made  is  a  matter  of  familiar  history.  In  resisting 
the  great  Macedonian  in  332  B.  c,  even  more  than 


THE  BIBLE  AND   TYRE.  173 

in  opposing  the  Assyrian  in  585,  did  she  show  her 
heroism.  The  later  siege  was  only  seven  mouths 
as  against  the  several  years  previously,  but  the 
struggle  was  more  terrific. 

Alexander  proceeded  to  construct  a  huge  mole 
from  the  continent  to  the  island,  but  no  sooner  did 
it  appear  above  the  water  than  it  was  furiously 
assaulted,  and  a  fire-ship,  driven  into  it,  spread 
havoc,  and  a  storm  arose  to  assist  in  the  demolition 
of  the  causeway,  which  sank  out  of  sight  in  the 
raging  sea.  Again  it  was  slowly  built  with  great 
trees  and  rocks  and  earth,  until  it  for  ever  closed 
the  gap  between  continental  and  insular  Tyre,  and 
along  it  were  pushed  the  engines  of  war,  while  a 
large  fleet  moved  from  the  sea  upon  the  fortifica- 
tions ;  and,  though  even  then  the  conqueror  wavered 
in  his  resolution  because  of  the  strength  of  the 
city,  he  at  length  after  a  fearful  conflict  won  the 
day. 

And  were  there  any  specific  prophecies  fulfilled? 
It  had  been  predicted,  "  They  shall  lay  thy  stones 
and  thy  timber  and  thy  dust  in  the  midst  of  the 
waters."  In  Quintus  Curtius  or  in  Rollin  we  can 
read  that  the  portions  of  the  city  on  the  mainland 
were  used  to  construct  the  mole  or  causeway  to  the 
island,  and  thus  the  stones  and  timber  and  dust  of 
the  city  were  literally  laid  "in  the  midst  of  the 
waters."  From  the  same  historians  we  learn  that 
the  city  was  fired,  and  thus  the  words  of  Amos 
came  true :  "  I  will  send  a  fire  on  the  wall  of  Tyre, 


174  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

and  it  shall  devour  the  palaces  thereof";  and 
Zechariah's  prediction  was  verified :  "  The  Lord 
will  dispossess  her,  and  he  will  smite  her  power 
in  the  sea ;  and  she  shall  be  devoured  with  fire." 
Then  Joel  had  prophesied :  "  The  children  also 
of  Judah  and  the  children  of  Jerusalem  have  ye 
sold  unto  the  sons  of  the  Grecians,  that  ye  might 
remove  them  from  their  border :  behold,  I  will  stir 
them  up  out  of  the  place  whither  ye  have  sold 
them,  and  will  return  your  recompense  upon  your 
own  head ;  and  I  will  sell  your  sons  and  your 
daughters."  This  unequivocal  prediction  was  uttered 
four  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Alexander's 
capture  of  Tyre,  and  the  exasperated  general  did 
sell  thirty  thousand  into  slavery  from  that  single 
city.  In  this  connection  it  is  "  interesting  to  read 
on  a  clay  tablet  found  at  Nineveh,"  says  Dr.  W.  B. 
Wright,  "  the  contract  of  a  Tyrian  merchant  with 
an  Assyrian  lady  for  the  sale  of  two  Hebrew 
slaves."  But  for  such  iniquity  the  Tyrians  were 
sold  into  slavery  by  the  destroyer  of  their  city. 
Joel  (800  b.  c.)  denounced  the  Tyrians  for  selling 
the  Hebrews,  and  yet  a  Ninevite  tablet  now  in 
the  British  Museum  informs  us  that  July  20,  709 
B.  c,  a  century  after  the  prophet's  reproval,  a 
Phoenician  sold  to  a  woman  of  Nineveh  two  He- 
brews for  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  dollars.  But 
the  predicted  recompense  upon  their  own  heads 
came  when  thirty  thousand  in  captured  Tyre  were 
sold  into  bondage  by  Alexander. 


THE  BIBLE  AND   TYRE.  175 

Nay,  those  who  fled,  as  they  had  done  before, 
to  Carthage  and  other  colonial  possessions  around 
the  Mediterranean  only  fulfilled  Isaiah's  prophecy, 
which  says:  "  Arise,  pass  over  to  Kittim ;  even 
there  shalt  thou  have  no  rest."  Of  Tyre's  chief 
colony,  the  Carthaginians,  it  was  sadly  true  that 
they  had  "  no  rest."  With  the  three  Puuic  wars 
which  they  waged  through  so  many  years  with 
Rome,  with  such  generals  as  Hannibal  and  Scipio 
to  lead  the  respective  armies,  with  the  cry,  "  Car- 
thago delenda  est "  ("  Carthage  must  be  destroyed  ") 
repeatedly  awakening  applause  in  the  Roman  Senate, 
— with  such  familiar  facts  of  history,  verily  those 
who  were  driven  forth  from  the  merchant  city  had 
"no  rest,"  not  even  in  the  isles  of  the  sea,  not  even 
in  the  colonial  possessions  fringing  the  Mediterra- 
nean. Says  Diodorus  Siculus  :  "  They  prevented  a 
part  of  their  children  and  wives  from  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy  by  sending  them  away 
secretly  to  the  Carthaginians,"  but  they  did  not 
prevent  disaster  coming  to  them  even  there. 

3.  And  yet  judgment  was  tempered  with  mercy. 
A  blessing  was  predicted.  Isaiah  relieved  the 
darkness  of  the  future  with  a  temporary  gleam  of 
light.  He  looked  forward  to  a  time  when  "her 
merchandise  and  her  hire  shall  be  holiness  to  the 
Lord  :  it  shall  not  be  treasured  nor  laid  up  ;  for 
her  merchandise  shall  be  for  them  that  dwell  before 
the  Lord."  She  was  not  to  be  "  brought  to  silence 
in  the  midst  of  the  sea "  till  she  had  received  the 


176  THk  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

gospel,  and  in  a  measure  had  accepted    the  same. 
Did  that  day  ever  come? 

Among  the  "  great  multitude  "  who  came  to  hear 
Jesus  and  to  be  healed  of  their  diseases  were, 
according  to  Luke,  people  from  "  Tyre  and  Sidou." 
It  was  in  the  "  borders  of  Tyre  and  Sidon "  that 
the  "  little  daughter  "  of  the  "  Syro-phcenician  " 
woman  was  relieved  by  the  Lord  of  a  demoniacal 
possession.  Paul  "  landed  at  Tyre,"  where  he 
found  "  disciples,"  with  whom  he  remained  a  week, 
and  by  whom,  "  with  wives  and  children,"  he  was 
accompanied  to  the  ship  at  his  departure,  while 
they  prayed  together  "  on  the  beach "  and  bade 
each  other  a  tender  "farewell." 

Subsequently  Tyre  became  the  seat  of  a  Christian 
bishopric.  There,  in  324  A.  D.,  Eusebius  dedicated 
a  fine  cathedral,  which  he  said  he  could  not  fittingly 
describe,  "  the  grandeur  that  surpasses  description, 
and  the  dazzling  aspect  of  works  glittering  in  the 
face  of  the  speaker,  the  heights  rising  to  the 
heavens."  This  ecclesiastical  historian,  comment- 
ing upon  Isaiah's  prophecy,  says,  "  It  is  fulfilled  in 
our  time.  For  since  a  church  of  God  hath  been 
founded  in  Tyre  as  well  as  in  other  nations,  many 
of  its  goods  gotten  by  merchandise  are  consecrated 
to  the  Lord,  being  offered  to  his  Church."  Still 
later  Jerome  says  :  u  We  may  behold  churches  in 
Tyre  built  to  Christ;  we  may  see  their  riches,  that 
they  are  not  laid  up  nor  treasured,  but  given  to 
those  who  dwell  before  the  Lord." 


THE  BIBLE  AND  TYRE.  177 

4.  But  Jerome  was  astonished  at  the  non-fulfill- 
ment of  part  of  the  prophecies.  In  the  beginning 
of  the  fifth  century  of  the  Christian  era  he  said 
Tyre  was  "  the  most  noble  and  the  most  beautiful 
city  of  Phoenicia/'  and  he  asks  how  this  can  be 
made  to  agree  with  Ezekiel's  prophecy,  "  Thou 
shalt  be  built  no  more."  He  did  not  seem  to  real- 
ize that  centuries  are  required  for  the  establishment 
of  God's  entire  word.  It  was  to  be  left,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  to  these  later  generations  to 
witness  the  complete  verification  of  the  prophecy, 
that  Tyre  should  be  "  brought  to  silence  in  the 
midst  of  the  sea." 

We  will  not  speak  of  the  Saracen  conquest  of  the 
city,  nor  of  its  subsequent  recovery  by  the  Crusa- 
ders, nor  of  its  humiliation  again  under  the  Turk. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  since  1561  there  has  been  the 
sure  and  final  decline.  Did  Ezekiel  say,  "  I  will 
make  thee  a  bare  rock :  thou  shalt  be  a  place  for 
the  spreading  of  nets"?  In  1697,  Maundrell 
saw  it  a  desolation  indeed,  the  miserable  inhab- 
itants subsisting,  he  says,  "chiefly  upon  fishing." 

Did  the  prophet  say  that  the  stones  of  the  city 
should  lie  "in  the  midst  of  the  waters"?  Says 
the  scholarly  Robinson  in  1838,  from  personal  ob- 
servation :  "  The  sole  tokens  of  her  more  ancient 
splendor — columns  of  red  aud  gray  granite,  some- 
times forty  or  fifty  heaped  together,  or  marble  pil- 
lars— lie  broken  aud  strewed  beneath  the  waves  in 
the  midst  of  the  sea."     "Granite  columns,"  says 

12 


178  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

another  observer  (Dr.  Thomson  in  his  Land  and 
the  Book),  "  are  thickly  spread  over  the  bottom  of 
the  sea  on  every  side/'  likewise  we  learn  from 
Tristram,  in  his  Land  of  Lsrael,  that  "  for  half  a 
mile  from  the  shore  the  sea  flows  to  the  depth  of 
a  foot  or  two  over  flat  rocks  covered  by  one  mass 
of  prostrate  columns." 

Does  Ezekiel  further  say,  "Thou  shalt  be  no 
more :  though  thou  be  sought  for,  yet  shalt  thou 
never  be  found  " ?  Renan  confirms  this.  He  writes  : 
"  A  traveler  who  was  not  informed  of  its  existence 
might  pass  aloug  the  whole  coast  without  beiug 
aware  that  he  was  close  to  an  ancient  city." 

With  such  facts  before  us  we  can  take  up  the 
dirge  of  the  text,  "  Who  is  there  like  Tyre,  like 
her  that  is  brought  to  silence  in  the  midst  of 
the  sea  ?"  Verily  the  word  of  the  Lord  does  stand 
sure.  Centuries  may  be  required  for  its  verification, 
but  in  the  end  every  hostile  power  will  be  humbled, 
while  the  Church  of  God  shall  be  preserved  and 
exalted. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

BIBLICAL  SIGNS  PRECEDING  THE  DESTRUCTION 
OF  JERUSALEM. 

"  And  as  some  spake  of  the  temple,  how  it  was  adorned 
with  goodly  stones  and  offerings,  he  said,  As  for  these  things 
which  ye  behold,  the  days  will  come  in  which  there  shall  not 
be  left  here  one  stone  upon  another,  that  shall  not  be  thrown 
down.  And  they  asked  him,  saying,  Master,  when  therefore 
shall  these  things  be?  and  what  shall  be  the  sign  when  these 
things  are  about  to  come  to  pass  ?" — Luke  21 :  5-7. 

rpHE  destruction  of  Jerusalem  aud  of  the  temple 
-L  therein  by  Titus  in  the  year  70  A.  D.  was  pre- 
dicted by  Christ  about  forty  years  before  the  event. 
The  disciples  were  amazed  at  the  prophecy,  and 
they  could  hardly  believe  that  it  would  be  fulfilled. 
They  asked  the  Master  what  signs  would  precede 
the  great  catastrophe,  and  he  told  them  plainly,  as 
he  sat  with  them  on  Mount  Olivet  with  the  Holy 
City  in  full  view  and  shining  resplendent  in  the  soft 
glow  of  a  setting  sun.  Let  us  glance  at  history 
and  see  if  the  signs  predicted  with  much  detail  did 
take  place.  It  might  be  said,  by  way  of  introduc- 
tion, that  the  signs  seem  to  point  primarily  to  the 
end  of  Jerusalem,  and  secondarily  to  the  end  of  the 
world.     There  were,  as  Farrar  has  said,  "  two  hori- 

179 


180  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

zons,  one  near  and  one  far  off,"  while  he  adds  that 
as  the  signs  "did  usher  in  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem, so  shall  (they)  reappear  on  a  larger  scale  be- 
fore the  end  of  all  things  is  at  hand."  Confining 
ourselves  for  the  present  to  the  dramatic  ending  of 
the  Jewish  polity  and  dispensation,  we  will  consider 
the  signs  that  were  to  precede  that  first  great  day 
of  the  Lord  which  is  symbolic  of  a  yet  more  dread- 
ful day  to  come. 

1.  "Before  all  these  things" — was  one  of  the 
signs — "  they  shall  lay  their  hands  on  you  and  shall 
persecute  you."  This  prophecy  certainly  was  most 
terribly  fulfilled  before  the  year  70,  when  Titus  de- 
stroyed the  city  and  temple.  James  was  beheaded 
by  Agrippa,  and  Paul  by  Nero,  before  that  date. 
The  history  of  the  apostolic  Church  was  one  suc- 
cession of  religious  persecutions.  This  is  evident 
from  the  narrative  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and 
it  is  corroborated  by  profane  history,  which  cannot 
be  considered  prejudiced  in  favor  of  Christianity. 
When  the  great  fire  broke  out  in  Rome,  continuing, 
says  Suetonius,  "  six  days  and  seven  nights,"  until 
nearly  half  the  city  was  burned  down,  Nero  re- 
marked upon  "  the  beautiful  effects  of  the  confla- 
gration." Now,  this  emperor  himself  was  believed 
to  have  ordered  the  city  to  be  fired,  and,  says  Taci- 
tus, "to  suppress  the  rumor  he  falsely  charged  with 
the  guilt  and  punished  with  the  most  exquisite  tor- 
tures the  persons  commonly  called  Christians,  who 
were   hated   for   their   enormities.      Christus,    the 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM.      181 

founder  of  that  name,  was  put  to  death  as  a  crim- 
inal  by  Pontius  Pilate,   procurator  of  Judaea,   in 

the  reign  of  Tiberius  :  but  the  pernicious  super- 
stition, repressed  for  a  time,  broke  out  again,  not 
only  through  Judaea,  where  the  mischief  originated, 
but  through  the  city  of  Rome  itself,  whither  all 
things  horrible  and  disgraceful  flow  from  all  quar- 
ters as  to  a  common  receptacle,  and  where  they  are 
encouraged.  Accordingly,  first  those  were  seized 
who  confessed  they  were  Christians  ;  next,  on  their 
information,  a  vast  multitude  were  convicted,  not 
so  much  on  the  charge  of  burning  the  city  as  of 
hating  the  human  race.  And  in  their  deaths  they 
were  also  made  the  subjects  of  sport,  for  they  were 
covered  with  the  hides  of  wild  beasts  and  worried 
to  death  by  dogs,  or  nailed  to  crosses,  or  set  fire  to, 
and  when  day  declined  burned  to  serve  for  noctur- 
nal lights/'  Such  is  the  language,  not  of  a  Chris- 
tian, but  of  a  pagan,  and  of  one  whose  life  covered 
the  latter  half  of  the  first  century  and  the  be^inuin^ 
of  the  second.  The  sign  of  religious  persecution 
did  then  occur,  and  this  very  persecution,  described 
by  the  Latin  historian,  raged  six  years  before  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem. 

2.  A  second  most  improbable  sign  was,  "This 
gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  the 
whole  world  for  a  testimony  unto  all  the  nations  ; 
and  then  shall  the  end  come."  Have  we  any  evi- 
dence that  this  sign  preceded  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem?      The  lloman   empire  was  recognized 


182  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

in  those  days  as  comprising  "  the  whole  world,"  for 
of  the  decree  by  Caesar  Augustus  Luke  says,  "  All 
the  world  should  be  enrolled ";  that  is,  the  entire 
empire.  Even  with  this  limitation  it  would  seem 
impossible  that  a  religion  whose  Founder  was  cru- 
cified— a  religion  which  antagonized  all  other  re- 
ligions by  pronouncing  them  false — a  religion  which 
did  not  flatter  men,  but  called  them  guilty  sinners 
— a  religion  which  required  self-denial  and  sacrifice 
of  life  even — a  religion  which,  after  all,  did  not 
propose  to  propagate  itself  by  force, — it  would  seem 
impossible  that  such  a  religion  should  be  so  widely 
diffused  in  forty  years ;  but  Christ  staked  his  repu- 
tation on  the  prediction  that  before  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem,  before  70  A.  D.,  his  gospel  should  be 
published  in  all  the  known  world;  and  there  is 
reason  for  believing  that  the  prophecy  proved  true. 
Tacitus,  in  the  quotation  already  made  from  him, 
says  that  the  pernicious  superstition  was  only  sup- 
pressed in  one  place  to  break  out  in  another,  "  not 
only  through  Judsea,  where  the  mischief  originated, 
but  through  the  city  of  Rome  itself,  whither  all 
things  horrible  and  disgraceful  flow."  Pliny  the 
Younger,  who  died  about  116  A.  D.,  writes:  "  Nor 
has  the  contagion  of  this  superstition  seized  cities 
only,  but  the  lesser  towns  also  and  the  open  coun- 
try." Clement,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  Paul, 
says  of  that  apostle,  "  He  was  a  preacher  both  to 
the  East  and  the  West ;  he  taught  the  whole  world 
righteousness  "  ;  and  Paul  died  before  the  year  70, 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM.      183 

previous  to  which  Christ  had  said  the  gospel  should 
be  published  among  all  nations.  "When  he  foretold 
the  sign  he  had  but  a  handful  of  followers,  but  the 
sign  did  not  fail. 

3.  There  were  also  to  be  great  civil  commotions 
— "  wars  and  rumors  of  wars/'  Christ's  advent 
was  at  a  time  of  universal  peace,  the  temple  of 
Janus  was  closed.  Nevertheless,  there  was  to  be 
within  a  generation  the  wildest  disorder  in  govern- 
mental  affairs  ;  so  he  prophesied,  at  least. 

Turning  now  for  the  period  in  question  to  Tacitus, 
and  running  over  the  contents  of  his  Annals,  we 
see  such  expressions  as  these :  "Disturbances  in 
Germany,"  "commotions  in  Africa,"  "commotions 
in  Thrace,"  "  insurrections  in  Gaul,"  "  intrigues 
among  the  Parthians,"  "  the  war  in  Britain,"  "  war 
in  Armenia."  So  too  from  Joseph  us  we  learn 
what  upheavals  there  were  throughout  the  empire. 
"In  all  Syria,"  he  says,  the  disorders  were  terrible; 
"  every  city  was  divided  into  two  armies,"  Syrians 
and  Jews ;  "  so  the  daytime  was  spent  in  shedding 
of  blood,  and  the  night  in  fear."  "We  are  told 
that  it  was  "  common  to  see  cities  filled  with  dead 
bodies  still  lying  unburied,  and  those  of  old  men 
mixed  with  infants ;  .  .  .  women  also  lay  among 
them."  Xo  wonder  with  the  dead  thus  scattered 
about  promiscuously  Josephus  could  only  call  the 
calamities  inexpressible.  Thirteen  thousand  were 
slain  in  Scythopolis.  Ten  thousand  at  Damascus 
had   their  "  throats  cut."     Twenty  thousand  were 


184  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

killed  "in  one  hour's  time"  at  Csesarea.  In  Alex- 
andria neither  old  nor  young  were  spared  till  fifty 
thousand  lay  dead  in  "  heaps."  Nor  was  it  single 
provinces  here  and  there  which  felt  the  commo- 
tions. The  empire  itself  was  rocking  to  its  founda- 
tions just  previous  to  the  eventful  year  of  70. 
There  were  four  emperors  within  two  years,  and 
all  of  them  met  with  violent  deaths.  Nero,  accord- 
ing to  Suetonius,  "  drove  a  dagger  into  his  throat "  • 
Galba  was  run  down  by  several  horsemen,  and  his 
head  was  cut  off  by  a  common  soldier,  who,  "  thrust- 
ing his  thumb  into  the  mouth,"  thus  carried  the 
horrible  trophy;  Otho  "stabbed  himself"  in  the 
breast ;  and  Vitellius  was  despatched  by  slow  tor- 
ture and  then  "dragged  by  a  hook  into  the  Tiber." 
So  that  it  was  not  now  and  then  a  province,  but  it 
was,  as  Suetonius  says,  "  the  empire,"  which  was  in 
a  "disturbed  and  unsettled  state."  Such  is  the 
testimony  as  to  the  facts  by  historians  who  little 
knew  that  Christ  had  foretold  all  forty  years  before, 
when  lie  declared  there  should  be  "  wars  and 
rumors  of  wars,"  nationality  arrayed  against  nation- 
ality and  king  against  king,  before  the  end  should 
come,  before  Jerusalem  should  be  destroyed. 

4.  Was  there  anything  else  to  precede  this  great 
event?  Yes.  "Many  shall  come  in  my  name, 
saying,  I  am  the  Christ;  and  shall  lead  many 
astray."  Were  there  impostors  of  this  kind  ? 
Josephus  says  there  was  "  a  great  number  of  false 
prophets/'      He   mentions   one   by   the   name  of 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM.      185 

Theudas,  who  persuaded  many  to  "take  their 
effects  with  them  and  follow  him  to  the  river 
Jordan,"  which  he  was  going  to  "divide";  and,  it 
is  added,  "  many  were  deluded  by  his  words." 
We  read  again  in  the  Jewish  historian  of  an 
Egyptian  who  "  pretended  to  be  a  prophet  also, 
and  got  together  thirty  thousand  men/'  whom  he 
promised  that  from  the  Mount  of  Olives  he  would 
show  "  how,  at  his  command,  the  walls  of  Jerusa- 
lem would  fall  down."  These  are  only  examples 
of  the  false  Christs,  of  whom  Josephus  says  there 
was  a  "  great  number,"  and  of  whom  Christ  had 
prophesied  there  would  be  "  many."  The  prediction 
and  the  fact  accord.  There  was  at  the  time  a 
feverish  expectation  very  favorable  to  impostors. 
Even  the  pagan  Suetonius  (and  he  ought  to  have 
known,  because  he  lived  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
first  and  the  beginning  of  the  second  century)  says  : 
"  A  firm  persuasion  had  long  prevailed  through  all 
the  East  that  it  was  fated  for  the  empire  of  the 
world  at  that  time  to  devolve  on  some  who  should 
go  forth  from  Jndsea."  It  was  because  of  this 
prevailing  feeling  that  so  many  false  Christs  ap- 
peared, and  the  true  Christ  foresaw  and  foretold  it 
all.  It  was  one  of  the  signs  which  were  to  precede 
the  overthrow  of  Jerusalem. 

5.  Another  sign  was  to  be  destructive  plagues, 
"great  earthquakes,"  to  use  Luke's  expression,  "  and 
in  divers  places  famines  and  pestilences."  Josephus 
mentions  a  "  famine "  in  the  reign  of  Claudius  so 


186  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

severe  that  "many  people  died  for  want  of  what 
was  necessary  to  procure  food."  Suetonius  refers 
to  a  "pestilence"  at  Rome  under  Nero,  and  he 
says,  "  within  the  space  of  one  autumn  there  died 
no  less  than  thirty  thousand  persons."  Tacitus 
speaks  of  a  "  failure  in  the  crops,  and  a  famine 
consequent  thereupon."  He  also  states  that  "fre- 
quent earthquakes  occurred,  by  which  many  houses 
were  thrown  down."  He  alludes  to  one  year 
wherein  "  twelve  populous  cities  of  Asia  fell  in 
ruins  from  an  earthquake  " ;  and  he  adds,  "  It  is 
related  that  immense  mountains  sank  down,  that 
level  places  were  seen  to  be  elevated  into  hills,  and 
that  fires  flashed  forth  during  the  catastrophe." 
Joseph  us  describes  an  earthquake  where  there  were 
"  amazing  concussions  and  bellowings  of  the  earth." 
Finally,  Seneca  in  the  year  58  writes  :  "  How  often 
have  cities  of  Asia  and  Achsea  fallen  with  one  fatal 
shock  !  how  many  cities  have  been  swallowed  up  in 
Syria  !  how  many  in  Macedonia  !  How  often  has 
Cyprus  been  wasted  by  this  calamity  !  how  often 
has  Paphos  become  a  ruin  !  News  has  often  been 
brought  us  of  the  demolition  of  whole  cities  at 
once."  In  the  light  of  such  testimony  how  striking 
Christ's  prediction,  "  great  earthquakes,  and  in 
divers  places  famines  and  pestilences"  ! 

6.  Perhaps  the  most  startling  prophecy  was  that 
there  should  be  what  an  evangelist  calls  "signs  in 
sun  and  moon  and  stars,"  "  terrors  and  great  signs 
from  heaven." 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM.      187 

sembling,"  says  Joseph  us,  "a  sword,"  huug  omi- 
nously over  the  city  a  whole  year.  One  night, 
according  to  the  same  witness,  the  temple  was 
mysteriously  flooded  with  a  light  bright  as  day  and 
lasting  "half  an  hour."  On  a  certain  evening  just 
before  sunset  "  chariots  and  troops  of  soldiers  in 
their  armor  were  seen  running  about  among  the 
clouds."  Stranger  than  all,  the  priests  one  night, 
on  going  into  the  temple  to  perform  their  usual 
duties,  "felt  a  quaking  and  heard  a  great  noise,  and 
after  that  they  heard  a  sound  as  of  a  multitude, 
saving,  '  Let  us  remove  hence.' ';  Such  are  some 
of  the  "  terrors  and  great  signs  from  heaven  "  which 
Josephus  mentions.  Tacitus,  too,  referring  to  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  says,  "Armies  were  seen 
to  engage  in  different  parts  of  the  sky ;  .  .  .  the 
temple  shone  by  the  sudden  fire  of  the  clouds ;  the 
doors  of  the  temple  were  suddenly  thrown  open ;  a 
voice,  more  than  human,  was  heard  that  the  gods 
were  departing,  and  at  the  same  time  a  great  mo- 
tion as  if  departing."  Josephus  was  a  Jew,  Tacitus 
was  a  Roman,  and  neither  was  a  Christian,  but 
what  they  write  as  history  Christ  had  spoken  as 
prophecy. 

7.  There  was  one  more  sign  which  was  to  be  a 
precursor  of  the  end  :  "  When  ye  see  Jerusalem 
compassed  with  armies,  then  know  that  her  deso- 
lation is  at  hand.  Then  let  them  that  are  in  Judaea 
flee  into  the  mountains ;  and  let  them  that  are  in 
the  midst  of  her   depart   out."     That  was  a  sigu 


188  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

that  the  Christians  were  to  make  their  escape  with 
all  haste.  Did  it  turn  out  as  planned  for?  Four 
years  before  the  final  catastrophe — that  is,  66  A.  D. 
— the  Roman  general  Cestius  Gall  us  marched  upon 
Jerusalem,  which  was  in  a  state  of  rebellion.  He 
pressed  the  siege,  and  had  he  continued,  says  Jose- 
phus,  "a  little  longer"  he  would  have  "  certainly 
taken  the  city,"  and  would  have  put  "an  eud  to 
the  war  that  very  day."  But  all  at  once  he  beat  a 
retreat.  Why  ?  "  Without  any  reason  in  the 
world,"  says  the  Jewish  historian.  But  there  was 
a  reason  of  which  he  was  ignorant.  It  was  doubt- 
less, in  the  providence  of  God,  to  give  the  Chris- 
tians their  promised  opportunity  to  escape.  Upon 
the  temporary  withdrawal  of  the  Romans  the  city- 
gates  stood  open  for  a  while,  but  in  a  few  days 
they  were  closed,  aud  active  preparations  were  car- 
ried on  so  as  to  resist  the  siege  which  was  sure  to 
be  renewed.  Before  the  blockade,  however,  "  many 
of  the  most  eminent  of  the  Jews,"  says  Josephus, 
"  swam  away  from  the  city,  as  from  a  ship  when  it 
was  going  to  sink."  Among  the  many  we  may 
suppose  the  Christians  to  have  been.  Indeed,  Eu- 
sebius,  the  Church  historian,  who  lived  from  265 
to  340  A.  D.,  expressly  says  that  they  "  by  revela- 
tion left  the  city,  and  dwelt  in  a  city  of  Perea,  the 
name  of  which  is  Pella."  Very  soon  after  this 
providential  escape  came  the  army  of  Titus,  and 
Jerusalem  was  destroyed,  and  also  the  temple  with 
its  goodly  stones. 


TEE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM.      189 

Thus,  before  the  actual  destruction  there  were 
signs  given  of  the  approaching  judgment,  warn- 
ings which  the  disciples  heeded  to  the  advantage  of 
their  personal  safety.  But  the  vast  majority  lin- 
gered and  suffered  untold  miseries.  "  They  did 
not,"  says  Josephus,  "  attend  nor  give  credit  to  the 
signs  that  were  so  evident."  Nor  will  many  now 
regard  the  warnings  of  God.  Desolation  will  some 
day  sweep  over  them  if  they  do  not  listen  to  the 
voice  of  mercy  which  precedes  the  infliction  of 
punishment.  The  Lord  makes  no  idle  threats ; 
every  word  of  his  comes  to  pass  :  it  did  of  old,  as 
we  have  seen,  and  it  will  in  the  future.  We  need 
not  go  down  at  the  last  with  a  sinking  world,  and 
yet  we  shall,  as  surely  as  did  the  ancient  Jews,  if 
we  do  not  improve  our  opportunities.  When  the 
last  great  day  of  the  Lord  shall  come,  the  end  of 
the  world,  of  which  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
is  emblematic — when  there  shall  precede  this  sol- 
emn consummation  of  human  history  still  more 
fearful  signs  than  have  been  considered — may  it  be 
ours  to  be  caught  up  into  the  air  before  that  final 
crash  and  wreck  of  nature  preparatory  to  the  evolv- 
ing of  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth.  May  it 
be  ours  to  dwell  in  the  New  Jerusalem  which  in 
the  goodness  of  God  succeeds  the  old. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  BIBLE   AND   THE  DESTRUCTION  OF 
JERUSALEM. 

"O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  which  killeth  the  prophets,  an) 
stoneth  them  that  are  sent  unto  her !  how  often  would  I  hav? 
gathered  thy  children  together,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her 
chickens  under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not !  Behold,  youi 
house  is  left  unto  you  desolate"  (Matt.  23:37,  38);  "And 
as  he  went  forth  out  of  the  temple,  one  of  his  disciples  saith 
unto  him,  Master,  behold,  what  manner  of  stones  and  what 
manner  of  buildings !  And  Jesus  said  unto  him,  Seest  thou 
these  great  buildings  ?  there  shall  not  be  left  here  one  stone 
upon  another,  which  shall  not  be  thrown  down"  (Mark 
13  : 1,  2)  ;  "  And  when  he  drew  nigh,  he  saw  the  city  and  wept 
over  it,  saying,  If  thou  hadst  known  in  this  day,  even  thou, 
the  things  which  belong  unto  peace !  but  now  they  are  hid 
from  thine  eyes.  For  the  days  shall  come  upon  thee,  when 
thine  enemies  shall  cast  up  a  bank  about  thee,  and  compass 
thee  round,  and  keep  thee  in  on  every  side,  and  shall  dash 
thee  to  the  ground,  and  thy  children  within  thee ;  and  they 
shall  not  leave  in  thee  one  stone  upon  another;  because  thou 
knewest  not  the  time  of  thy  visitation"  (Luke  19:41,  44); 
"Then  shall  be  great  tribulation,  such  as  hath  not  been  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world  until  now,  no,  nor  ever  shall  be" 
(Matt.  24:  21) ;  "  And  thou  shalt  eat  the  fruit  of  thine  own 
body,  the  flesh  of  thy  sons  and  of  thy  daughters  which  the 
Lord  thy  God  hath  given  thee ;  in  the  siege  and  in  the  strait- 
ness,  wherewith  thine  enemies  shall  straiten  thee"  (Deut. 
28 :  53) ;  "  And  they  shall  fall  by  the  edge  of  the  sword,  and 
190 


JERUSALEM  DESTROYED.  191 

shall  be  led  captive  into  all  the  nations:  and  Jerusalem  shall 
be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,  until  the  times  of  the  Gentiles 
be  fulfilled"  (Luke  21 :  24). 

THE  destruction  of  Jerusalem  was  very  positive- 
ly foretold  by  Christ  some  forty  years  before 
the  event.  Nothing  seemed  more  unlikely  at  the 
time.  The  disciples  could  hardly  believe  that  the 
predictions  would  be  verified.  The  city  and  the 
temple  seemed  too  substantial  and  too  glorious  to 
be  doomed  to  such  utter  ruin  and  desolation.  There 
were  three  lines  of  fortification,  containing  single 
stones  seventy  feet  in  length.  The  walls  were  sur- 
mounted by  strong  towers  which  seemed  impregna- 
ble. The  temple  was  simply  magnificent.  There 
were  pillars  between  thirty  and  forty  feet  high,  each 
being  an  entire  stone  of  white  marble,  and  so  large 
that  three  men  with  extended  arms  were  required 
to  reach  around  one.  The  gates  were  plated  with 
gold  and  they  swung  on  hinges  of  the  same  precious 
metal.  The  roof  was  covered  with  one  mass  of 
golden  spikes  to  keep  the  birds  from  settling  there- 
on. A  golden  vine  with  clusters  of  grapes  and 
with  each  bunch  as  large  as  a  man  was  the  admi- 
ration of  all.  The  rabbins  said,  "  Like  a  true  nat- 
ural vine  it  grew  greater  and  greater;  men  would 
be  offering,  some  gold  to  make  a  leaf,  some  a  grape, 
some  a  bunch :  and  these  were  hung  upon  it,  and  so 
it  was  increasing  continually."  Such  was  the  tem- 
ple, and,  says  Josephus,  at  the  rising  of  the  sun  it 
"  reflected  back  a  very  fiery  splendor,"  which  forced 


192  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

people  to  "  turn  their  eyes  away,  just  as  they  would 
have  done  at  the  sun's  own  rays  "  ;  while  at  a  dis- 
tance, says  this  historian,  the  temple,  which  he  had 
often  seen,  appeared  "like  a  mountain  covered  with 
snow  ;  for  as  to  those  parts  of  it  that  were  not  gilt, 
they  were  exceeding  white."  It  is  not  strange  that 
one  of  the  disciples  said  admiringly,  "  Behold,  what 
manner  of  stones  and  what  manner  of  buildings." 
These,  however,  were  not  to  be  left  "  one  stone  upon 
another."  It  was  70  A.  D.,  under  the  Roman  gen- 
eral Titus,  that  the  catastrophe  came.  Let  us  brief- 
ly note  some  of  the  details  of  the  siege  as  given  in 
Josephus,  Jewish  historian  of  the  time  and  an  eye- 
witness of  the  successive  stages  of  destruction. 

Not  the  least  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Jews  came 
through  the  heads  of  various  factions,  each  striving 
for  the  mastery  within  the  doomed  walls.  The 
people  had  once  asked  for  the  release  of  the  robber 
Barabbas  in  preference  to  Jesus,  and  now  they  were 
tormented  by  robber  chiefs  who  with  armed  bands 
roamed  the  streets  and  plundered  and  killed,  till 
there  was  such  a  reign  of  terror  that  the  approach 
of  the  Romans  was  actually  hailed  with  delight  by 
the  miserable  citizens.  Titus  drew  up  his  legions 
before  the  outer  wall.  His  engines  and  battering- 
rams  began  to  play.  The  former  threw  immense 
stones,  which,  flying  through  the  air  and  shining 
white  in  the  night,  were  at  first  avoided,  but  when 
painted  black  and  thus  rendered  invisible  in  the 
darkness,  they  crushed  whole  ranks.      There  was 


JERUSALEM  DESTROYED.  193 

something  irresistible  in  the  steady  battering  of  the 
ram,  which  was  worked  backward  and  forward  "  by 
a  great  multitude  of  men  "  with  regular  swinging 
strokes.  One  of  the  formidable  machines,  called 
Niko  or  Victory  because  it  had  never  been  known 
to  fail,  thundered  away  day  and  night  till  a  breach 
was  made  and  the  outer  wall  was  taken,  and  a  great 
part  of  it  was  "  demolished."  The  second  wall  was 
next  attacked.  Besiegers  and  defenders  fought  des- 
perately until  it  also  succumbed,  and  Titus  "de- 
molished it  entirely."  Not  one  stone  was  left  upon 
another. 

Siege  was  laid  to  the  third  wall,  and  famine 
began  its  ravages.  "A  table,"  says  the  Jewish 
historian,  "  was  nowhere  laid  for  a  distinct  meal." 
All  ate  secretly  and  hastily,  lest  their  provisions 
should  be  discovered  and  seized  by  the  robbers, 
who  ransacked  houses  for  food,  and  who,  lifting  up 
children,  shook  them  till  they  let  go  the  morsels  to 
which  they  clung  in  their  hunger.  People  would 
steal  out  of  the  city  for  something  to  eat,  and  would 
be  captured  by  the  Romans,  and  would  be  crucified 
to  the  number  of  four  hundred  in  one  day.  Thev 
writhed  on  crosses  in  sight  of  fellow-Jews,  who 
crowded  the  wall  above.  This  tragedy  of  crucifix- 
ion went  on  till  there  was  actually  a  scarcity  of  wood 
for  the  making  of  the  transverse  beams.  "  His 
blood  be  on  us,  and  on  our  children  !"  cried  the 
Jews  of  Him  whom  they  crucified  ;  and  it  was,  as 
they  also  were  nailed  by  the  hundreds  on  crosses. 

13 


194  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

Meanwhile  the  progress  was  slow,  the  engines 
and  works  of  assault  being  skillfully  undermined 
and  burned.  Titus  decided  upon  another  plan  of 
bringing  the  besieged  to  terms.  He  built,  we  read, 
"a  wall  round  about  the  whole  city."  This  was, 
as  another  has  said,  "a  military  palisade  or  rampart, 
made  from  the  earth  thrown  out  of  the  ditch  and 
stuck  with  sharp  stakes."  In  three  days,  the  whole 
army  being  employed,  was  the  work  completed,  and 
when  properly  garrisoned  there  was  no  possibility 
of  ingress  or  egress ;  the  city  could  in  time  be 
starved  into  submission.  How  remarkable  that 
Christ  should  have  foretold  this  plan  of  operation 
forty  years  before  the  event ! — "  The  days  shall  come 
upon  thee,  when  thine  enemies  shall  cast  up  a  bank 
[margin,  palisade]  about  thee,  and  compass  thee 
round,  and  keep  thee  in  on  every  side."  The 
Jews  were  completely  hemmed  in;  "all  hope  of 
escaping,"  says  Josephus,  "  was  now  cut  off,  .  .  . 
together  with  their  liberty  of  going  out  of  the 
city." 

The  famine  became  more  terrible,  whole  families 
being  swept  off.  Houses  were  full  of  the  dying. 
In  the  streets  were  those  who  had  dropped  down 
dead.  The  robbers  plundered  the  corpses,  and  they 
would  laughingly  try  the  edge  of  their  swords  upon 
the  naked  flesh,  and  would  sometimes  thrust  through 
those  who  "  still  lay  alive  upon  the  ground."  For 
a  while  the  dead  were  buried,  but  afterward  they 
were  only  "  cast  down  from  the  walls  into  the  valleys 


JERUSALEM  DESTROYED.  195 

beneath."  Titus,  going  his  rounds,  saw  with  horror 
the  decaying  bodies,  whose  stench  was  unendurable, 
and,  groaning  aloud,  he  raised  his  hands  to  heaven 
and  "called  God  to  witness  that  this  was  not  his 
doing."  He  seemed  half  conscious  of  playing  into 
the  hands  of  an  overruling  Providence. 

The  famishing  inhabitants  stole  away  from  the 
city  in  great  numbers,  and,  it  becoming  known  to 
the  enemy  that  to  save  their  money  they  swallowed 
it,  the  soldiers  of  Titus  set  to  cutting  "  open  their 
living  bodies"  in  search  of  the  hidden  treasures; 
and  sometimes  "  pieces  of  gold "  were  found,  but 
u  a  great  many  were  destroyed  "  in  the  "  bare  hope  " 
of  gain.  Two  thousand  were  killed  in  one  night 
for  the  possible  gold  they  might  contain.  Though 
the  Roman  general  threatened  his  followers  with 
instant  death  if  they  continued  their  horrible  work, 
they  still,  when  detection  seemed  unlikely,  seized 
Jewish  deserters,  and,  in  the  words  of  Joseph  us, 
"  dissected  them  and  pulled  polluted  money  out  of 
their  bowels." 

The  famine  increased  till  people  gnawred  old 
leather.  Wisps  of  hay  were  eaten,  and  shoots  of 
trees  sold  at  high  prices  for  food.  A  wealthy 
woman  of  Perea  who  was  caught  by  the  siege  in 
Jerusalem  became  so  maddened  with  hunger  that  she 
slew  her  nursing  child,  and,  says  Josephus,  "  roasted 
him  and  ate  the  one-half  of  him,  and  kept  the  other 
half  by  her  concealed "  till  the  robbers,  who  had 
plundered  her  repeatedly,  came  again.     When  they 


196  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

came  and  "  threatened  her  that  they  would  cut  her 
throat  immediately  if  she  did  not  show  them  what 
food  she  had,"  she  replied  that  she  had  saved  a  very 
fine  portion  for  them,  and  thereupon  she  "  un- 
covered what  was  left  of  her  son."  When  they 
refused  to  eat  she  reproached  them  for  being  more 
fastidious  than  a  woman ;  but  she  was  allowed  to 
finish  herself  the  horrid  feast,  consisting  of  her 
own  child's  flesh.  Away  back  in  Deuteronomy  it 
had  been  prophesied,  "  Thou  shalt  eat  the  fruit  of 
thine  own  body  ...  in  the  siege  and  in  the  strait- 
ness,  wherewith  thine  enemies  shall  straiten  thee." 

Events  fast  hurried  to  a  close.  Titus  called  a 
council  to  discuss  the  expediency  of  destroying  the 
temple,  which  flames  were  rapidly  approaching. 
The  decision  was  to  save  the  holy  house,  and  the 
advancing  fire  was  ordered  extinguished.  But  the 
Roman  soldiers,  exasperated  by  continued  Jewish 
attacks,  pressed  forward,  and  one  of  them,  mount- 
ing the  shoulders  of  a  comrade,  contrary  to  orders 
applied  a  blazing  torch  to  a  temple  window,  and  the 
conflagration  was  started.  Titus  at  the  alarm 
rushed  to  the  scene  and  commanded  the  fire  to  be 
quenched,  but  his  voice  could  not  be  heard  in  the 
din  and  confusion.  He  signaled  with  his  hand,  but 
every  one  was  too  excited  to  pay  any  attention. 
"  And  thus,"  says  the  Jewish  historian,  "  was  the 
holy  house  burnt  down  without  Caesar's  approba- 
tion." It  was  contrary  to  the  wish  of  Titus,  but 
it  was  in  accordance  with  the  prediction  of  Christ, 


JERUSALEM  DESTROYED.  197 

who  had  said,  "Your  house  is  left  unto  you  deso- 
late.^ The  whole  structure  was  ablaze  and  the  fire 
roared  like  a  volcano.  The  light  was  seen  for  miles. 
People  gathered  on  the  Avails  of  the  upper  city  and 
sent  up  their  wailings.  There  was  the  "shout  of 
the  Roman  legions,"  and  there  was  the  cry  of  de- 
spair from  those  "surrounded  with  fire  and  sword," 
while  the  hills  round  about  returned  the  echo  of  the 
roaring  conflagration,  the  shouting  soldiery  and  the 
crying  multitude. 

Zion  only  remained  to  be  taken,  and  against  its 
steep  cliffs  mounds  were  raised,  and  soon  the  batter- 
ing-rams were  thundering  away.  The  Jews  were 
dejected,  the  Romans  confident.  A  breach  was 
speedily  made  in  the  wall ;  a  panic  ensued ;  the 
people,  fleeing  hither  and  thither,  were  hunted 
down,  and  the  streets  were  made  to  flow  with  their 
blood.  Orders  were  given  for  the  demolition  of 
"  the  entire  city  and  temple."  Three  massive  tow- 
ers, however,  were  spared,  that  future  generations 
might  see  what  "Roman  valor  had  subdued." 
When  Titus  examined  these  he  exclaimed,  "  We 
have  certainly  had  God  for  our  assistant  in  this 
war,  .  .  .  for  what  could  the  hands  of  men  or  any 
machines  do  toward  overthrowing  these  towers?" 
He  was  right.  God  had  decreed  it,  and  it  had 
been  foretold  by  Christ.  Jerusalem  was  actually 
"  trodden  down,"  and  Zion's  wall,  like  the  other  two, 
was  leveled.  "  The  city,"  says  Josephus,  "was  so 
thoroughly  laid  even  with  the  ground  by  those  that 


198  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

dug  it  up  to  the  foundation  that  there  was  left  noth- 
ing: to  make  those  that  came  thither  believe  it  had 
ever  been  inhabited."  Such  was  the  end  of  a  con- 
flict wherein  one  million  one  hundred  thousand  were 
killed  ("and  they  shall  fall  by  the  edge  of  the 
sword "),  and  ninety-seven  thousand  were  taken 
prisoners  and  sold,  many  of  them,  into  slavery 
("  and  shall  be  led  captive  into  all  the  nations "). 

What  now  had  Jesus  predicted  regarding  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  ? — "  Then  shall  be  great 
tribulation,  such  as  hath  not  been  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world  until  now,  no,  nor  ever  shall  be." 
What  says  the  Jewish  historian  in  giving  a  sum- 
mary of  the  war? — "It  appears  to  me  that  the 
misfortunes  of  all  men  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world,  if  they  be  compared  to  those  of  the  Jews, 
are  not  so  considerable  as  they  were."  The  fact 
seems  to  have  corresponded  to  the  prophecy.  And 
what  is  the  judgment  of  the  modern  historian  ? 
Mil  man  says  :  "  Jerusalem  .  .  .  has  probably  wit- 
nessed a  far  greater  portion  of  human  misery  than 
any  other  spot  upon  the  earth." 

A  triumph  at  Rome  was  voted  to  Titus  for  his 
splendid  success.  He  was  crowned  with  laurel  and 
clothed  in  purple.  His  soldiers  were  arrayed  in 
their  finest  uniform.  The  triumphal  procession 
was  set  in  motion  amid  shouts  that  rent  the  air. 
The  tallest  and  most  distinguished  of  the  captured 
Jews  graced  the  triumph.  Carried  along  in  the 
line  of  march  were  beautifully- wrought  vessels  of 


JERUSALEM   DESTROYED.  199 

silver  and  gold.  There  were  rarest  wild  beasts 
from  all  quarters  of  the  globe  to  help  make  up  the 
display.  Ships  were  borne  along  in  great  numbers, 
and,  after  the  manner  of  modern  transparencies, 
magnificent  pageants  three  and  four  stories  high 
whereon  was  portrayed  all  the  scenery  of  ancient 
warfare,  such  as  "a  happy  country  laid  waste  and 
entire  squadrons  of  enemies  slain,"  "houses  over- 
thrown and  falling  upon  their  owners,"  soldiers 
pouring  through  breaches  in  walls,  and  other  simi- 
lar scenes  drawn  true  to  the  facts.  Of  this  grand 
Roman  triumph,  decreed  for  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  there  remains  yet  a  witness  in  the  Arch 
of  Titus,  still  standing  in  one  of  the  streets  of 
the  Eternal  City.  On  that  arch  the  traveler  to-day, 
after  the  lapse  of  centuries,  sees  represented  Jewish 
captives,  the  goldeu  candlestick  and  the  triumphal 
car  of  the  Roman  general.  For  eighteen  hundred 
years  that  marble  arch  has  been  witnessing  to  the 
literal  fulfillment  of  God's  word.  For  all  these 
centuries  has  Jerusalem  been  "  trodden  down  of 
the  Gentiles." 

Three  hundred  years  after  the  destruction  of  the 
city  there  was  a  vain  attempt  by  Julian  the  Apos- 
tate to  restore  the  Jewish  polity  with  all  the  old 
paraphernalia  of  worship.  This  Roman  emperor, 
for  the  express  purpose,  says  Gibbon,  of  furnishing 
an  "  argument  against  the  faith  of  prophecy  and 
the  truth  of  revelation,"  gave  orders  for  the  res- 
toration of  the  temple.     From  every  part  of  the 


200  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

empire  the  Jews  flocked,  and  engaged  in  the  work 
of  reconstruction.  Rich  men  labored  with  spades 
and  pickaxes  of  silver,  and  wealthy  women  carried 
materials  in  silk  and  purple  mantles.  But  the  en- 
terprise was  strangely  interrupted.  According  to 
both  pagan  and  Christian  writers  of  the  time,  when 
the  rubbish  had  been  cleared  away  and  the  subter- 
ranean caverns  had  been  opened,  flames  burst  from 
the  long-hidden  chambers,  balls  of  fire  rolled  along 
the  ground  with  thunderous  noise,  and  the  workmen 
had  to  abandon  the  undertaking.  Whether  it  was 
a  miraculous  interruption  of  the  work  in  accordance 
with  contemporary  belief,  or  whether  it  was  a  natu- 
ral and  not  unknown  phenomenon  of  gases  long  con- 
fined exploding  on  coming  in  contact  with  outer  air, 
the  work,  at  any  rate,  was  stopped.  The  times  of 
the  Gentiles  had  not  yet  been  fulfilled,  and  Jerusa- 
lem had  still  to  be  trodden  down  for  at  least  fifteen 
hundred  years  more. 

How  long  the  malediction  of  Heaven  against  the 
Holy  City  is  yet  to  continue  in  force  we  cannot  say. 
Whether  the  Jews  shall  ever  be  actually  restored  to 
Jerusalem  is  a  question  of  debate.  But  that  a 
blessed  future  is  in  store  for  the  chosen  people  upon 
their  conversion  to  Christ  is  a  part  of  prophetic 
teaching.  With  "the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles," 
says  Paul,  "all  Israel  shall  be  saved."  The  proph- 
ecies of  Christ,  the  predictions  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  of  the  Old,  have  to  such  an  extent  been 
veiified  that  we  can   well  believe  in  what  yet  re- 


JERUSALEM  DESTROYED.  201 

mains  unfulfilled  of  God's  word.  And  there  is 
the  bright  prospect,  if  not  of  an  earthly  Jerusalem 
restored,  at  least  of  a  "  new  Jerusalem  coming  down 
out  of  heaven  from  God,  made  ready  as  a  bride 
adorned  for  her  husband." 


CHAPTER    XV. 

THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  PECULIAR  JEWS. 

"  Lo,  it  is  a  people  that  dwell  alone, 
And  shall  not  be  reckoned  among  the  nations." — Num.  23  :  9. 

THE  absolute  uniqueness  of  the  Jews  as  a  people 
is  here  indicated.  They  were  and  are  "  pecu- 
liar," not  only  in  the  biblical,  but  in  the  modern, 
sense. 

1.  The  separateness  of  the  Hebrews,  predicted 
in  Scripture,  has  been  realized  in  history.  They 
were  to  be  altogether  unlike  others,  and  they  have 
been.  They  were  told  just  what  to  eat  and  what 
not  to  eat,  their  very  diet  being  so  prescribed  as  to 
make  it  necessary  for  them  to  live  by  themselvesr 
From  the  apostles  we  learn  what  a  holy  horror 
there  was  among  pious  Jews  of  eating  meats  that 
had  been  sacrificed  to  idols.  Matrimonial  alliances 
were  forbidden  outside  of  the  chosen  circle,  aud 
even  social  relations  were  confined  to  the  strictest 
lines ;  to  sit  at  the  same  table  with  sinners  was  a 
disgrace.  How  multiform  were  the  ceremonial 
ablutions  to  cleanse  from  any  defilement  that  may 
have  been  contracted  from  coming  in  contact  with 
the  unclean  Gentile  unawares !     This  thorough  ex- 

202 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  PECULIAR  JEWS.    203 

clusiveness  was  peculiar  to  the  Jews,  and  it  was  of 
divine  ordering.  God  seems  to  have  had  a  great 
plan  which  could  be  carried  out  only  by  the  minu- 
test regulations. 

The  human  race  was  then  in  its  childhood,  and 
had  to  be  governed  accordingly.  The  only  mis- 
take, perhaps,  of  the  Jews  was  their  holding  on  to 
childish  things  after  they  had  become  men  and  by 
various  traditions  adding  to  the  rules.  Still,  in  a 
general  sense  they  were  true  to  the  plan  mapped 
out  for  them  by  God;  they  were  meant  to  be  a 
peculiar  people,  clearly  marked  off  from  all  other 
nations. 

"Lo,  it  is  a  people  that  dwell  alone, 
And  shall  not  be  reckoned  among  the  nations." 

The  result  is,  that  a  Jew  to  this  day  is  a  Jew 
wherever  he  may  be,  and  all  down  history  he 
stands  out  separate  and  easily  recognized.  No 
other  nationality  can  be  thus  distinctly  traced  from 
the  beginning  down.  History  opens  with  Abraham 
emigrating  from  "  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,"  and  the 
migratory  Jew  is  still  marching  on,  as  unique  a 
character  as  ever.  Whatever  the  country,  what- 
ever the  age,  the  Jew  is  a  Jew — peculiar.  This 
national  exclusiveness  seems  to  point  to  the  mould- 
ing hand  of  Him  with  whom  a  day  is  as  a  thousand 
years  and  a  thousand  years  are  as  a  day.  Indeed, 
we  can  see  somewhat  of  the  divine  purpose. 

2.  It  seems  to  us  utter  folly  to  worship  idols,  to 


204  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

bow  before  gods  innumerable.  But  polytheism  is 
apparently  that  to  which  humanity  naturally  in- 
clines. Indeed,  the  ancient  world  was  wholly  poly- 
theistic. The  very  idea  of  setting  apart  the  Jews 
was  to  introduce  and  spread  the  doctrine  that  there 
is  no  God  except  Jehovah;  and  even  the  people 
who  were  chosen  for  this  mission  were  themselves 
so  tinctured  with  the  prevailing  religious  notions  as 
to  be  constantly  going  over  into  idolatry.  God  had 
to  be  severe  with  them;  he  had  to  build  walls, 
insisting  upon  entire  separation  and  punishing  the 
least  intermingling  with  the  heathen,  or  he  could 
never  have  established  the  true  doctrine  of  one  God 
and  only  One. 

Strict  as  he  was,  it  required  centuries  to  make 
the  Jews  themselves  thoroughly  monotheistic.  It 
was  not  till  the  captivity  in  Babylon  that  the  serv- 
ing of  strange  gods  was  completely  rooted  out  of 
their  hearts.  It  took  two  thousand  years  to  get 
just  one  nation  indoctrinated,  for  when  Christ  came 
the  Jews  alone  were  believers  in  a  single  Deity 
pure  and  simple.  The  most  cultured  people  on  the 
face  of  the  globe,  the  educated  Greeks,  held  to 
"gods  many" — so  many  that  in  their  chief  city, 
Athens,  a  Roman  satirist  could  say  it  was  easier  to 
find  a  god  than  a  man. 

This,  then,  is  the  second  great  peculiarity  of  the 
Jews :  their  exclusiveness  was  with  a  view  to 
educating  them  into  monotheism,  and  this  with 
the  ulterior  purpose  of  bringing  all  mankind  to  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  PECULIAR  JEWS.    205 

worship  of  one  God.  It  required  two  thousand 
years  to  make  one  nation  believe  this  doctrine,  and 
nearly  two  thousand  years  more  have  passed  away, 
and  still  the  great  majority  of  the  race  are  idolaters. 
God  understood  the  gravity  of  the  situation  when 
he  set  the  Jews  off  by  themselves :  he  saw  he  must 
adopt  the  most  stringent  measures  to  overcome 
polytheism.  It  is  very  easy  for  us  to  ridicule 
idolatry,  for  there  have  been  generations  of  train- 
ing back  of  us :  we  have  inherited  the  monotheistic 
doctrine.  It  is  an  inheritance  which  the  Jews  have 
given  us,  and  to  this  source  the  world  is  indebted 
for  the  passing  away  of  idols. 

To  be  sure,  when  Mohammedanism  swept  over 
three  continents  almost  the  very  battle-cry  was, 
"  There  is  one  God,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet !" 
but  Mohammed  borrowed  from  Moses,  and  the 
Koran  is  an  imperfect  digest  and  mutilation  of  the 
Old  Testament.  We  think  it  very  peculiar  for  men 
to  worship  idols,  whereas  the  peculiar  thing  about 
it  is  that  we  are  not  polytheists  instead  of  worship- 
ers of  one  God — a  peculiarity  which  has  been  ground 
into  our  very  being  by  the  persistent  teaching  of 
the  Jewish  Scriptures.  What  a  power  the  Jew  has 
been  we  see  when  we  consider  that  were  it  not  for 
his  influence  we  to-day  would  be  bowing  down  to 
stocks  and  stones,  or  at  best  to  sun,  moon  and  stars ! 
A  peculiar  people,  assuredly,  to  whom  can  be 
traced,  under  the  guidance  of  God,  the  overthrow 
of  what   is  distinctive   of  heathenism,  the  debas- 


206  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

ing  worship  of  material  objects.  The  world  is 
being  revolutionized  in  this  respect  by  Jewish 
doctrine. 

3.  Another  peculiarity  of  this  people  is  the  idea  of 
a  Messiah  which  they  have  introduced  into  history. 
Renan,  the  distinguished  French  skeptical  writer, 
says :  "  What  more  than  all  else  characterized  the 
Jew  was  his  confident  .  .  .  belief  in  a  brilliant  and 
happy  future  for  humanity."  It  was  the  prophet 
Micah  who  foretold  that  out  of  Bethlehem  should 
proceed  a  Ruler  "  whose  goings  forth  are  from  of 
old,  from  everlasting."  Away  back  in  Genesis  the 
promise  was  made  to  a  Jew,  "  In  thy  seed  shall  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed."  How  very 
romantic  that  orthodox  (not  rationalizing)  Jews  are 
to  this  day  reading  the  prophecies  of  a  great 
Deliverer,  and  are  hoping  for  his  coming,  or,  at 
least,  if  not  for  the  coming  of  a  personal  Messiah, 
for  the  coming  of  a  Messianic  kiugdom !  The 
result  is,  their  golden  age  is  in  their  future.  Heath- 
en nations  look  back  to  the  glory  of  the  past,  and 
there  is  no  inspiring  hope  ahead.  The  effect  is  seen 
in  the  people's  lives;  there  is  nothing  to  cheer  them 
on,  aud  they  sink  into  a  fatalistic  view  of  things; 
they  lose  ambition  and  become  dead  weights  to 
civilization. 

The  Jews,  however,  are  expectant ;  glorious 
things  are  in  store  for  them,  and  they  are  buoyant 
and  courageous,  and  there  is  no  likelihood  of  their 
dying  out,  as  many  another   nationality  has  died 


THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  PECULIAR  JEWS.    207 

Flash  upon  a  people  the  conviction  that  they  are 
going  to  make  a  mark  in  history,  fill  them  with 
the  thought  of  a  future  big  with  events,  and  they 
are  ever  rousing  themselves  to  realize  the  pictured 
ideal.  The  Jews  can  never  pass  out  of  history  so 
long  as  the  hope  of  Messiah's  reign  keeps  stirring 
them  to  nobler  achievements,  so  long  as  they  are 
for  ever  working  up  to  the  standard  which  they  are 
sure  will  some  day  be  reached.  So  that  this  Jewish 
doctrine  of  better  times  to  come  is  lifting  mankind 
into  hopefulness,  which  is  the  necessary  condition  to 
successful  development,  for  a  disheartened  people 
never  yet  accomplished  anything.  It  puts  the 
golden  age  not  behind,  but  ahead,  evermore  furnish- 
ing a  fresh  incentive  to  exertion. 

And  yet,  it  may  be  said,  as  the  Jews  number  only 
six  or  seven  (or  at  most  twelve)  millions  in  the 
whole  world,  their  hope  of  a  Messiah  cannot  have 
a  very  general  influence.  That  is  true  to  a  certain 
extent,  but  where  did  Christians  get  their  Messiah? 
It  was  Disraeli  (was  it  not?)  who  said  that  one  half 
of  Christendom  worships  a  Jew,  and  the  other  half 
a  Jewess — Jesus  and  Mary.  The  irony  of  this  con- 
tains some  truth.  Christianity  is  of  Hebraic  origin  ; 
salvation  is  of  the  Jews,  the  Master  himself  said, 
and  to  Christianity  is  due  our  modern  civilization. 
And  while  our  Christ  is  in  the  past  so  far  as  his 
historical  environment  is  concerned,  it  is  the  future 
which  is  to  witness  his  triumph. 

The  millennium  is  yet  to  be,  and  all  Christendom 


208  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

feels  the  thrill  of  what  is  to  come.  Not  only  actual 
believers  in  Christ,  but  all  who  have  come  under 
the  influence  of  his  teaching,  are  living  in  expect- 
ancy of  wondrous  developments.  To  such  a  height 
have  our  expectations  risen  that  we  would  not  be 
much  surprised  at  anything  which  might  happen. 
What  with  railroad  and  telegraph  and  telephone 
and  phonograph,  what  with  the  springing  to  new 
activity  wherever  the  gospel  of  Christ  is  known, 
what  with  the  opening  up  of  countries  long  unex- 
plored, Christendom  is  almost  wild  with  expecta- 
tion. We  cannot  lie  down  in  sluggishness ;  the 
breath  of  life  is  blowing  over  us  with  a  freshness 
which  makes  every  heart  and  pulse  to  bound. 
Thank  God  for  the  Jew,  for  the  Messiah  who 
sprung  from  the  Jew,  for  that  glorious  hopefulness 
which  only  those  nations  have  that  are  acquainted 
with  the  Messianic  kingdom  !  The  gospel  has  but 
to  touch  heathenism  and  the  dry  bones  begin  to  stir 
with  life.  Japan  hears  the  story  and  rouses  from 
the  sleep  of  centuries,  and  is  wide  awake  to  enter 
the  race  which  is  to  end  in  victory.  Wherever  the 
Jewish  Scriptures  are  read,  and  only  there,  is  there 
progress  even  of  the  material  type,  is  there  a  reach- 
ing forward  for  the  better  things  to  come;  and  when 
we  think  of  it,  how  our  respect  for  the  Jew  grows ! 
No  other  character  has  been  so  prominent  in  the  de- 
velopments which  go  to  make  up  history,  appearing 
as  it  does  at  every  turn  in  the  slow  unfolding  of  the 
divine  purpose. 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  PECULIAR  JEWS.    209 

4.  There  is  one  characteristic  of  the  Jews  as  a 
nation  so  peculiar  that  it  has  made  infidels  believers 
— namely,  their  wide  dispersion  in  exact  accordance 
with  prophecy.  When  Frederick  the  Great  asked 
his  chaplain  the  strongest  argument  in  a  word  for 
the  Bible  and  Christianity,  the  answer  very  proper- 
ly was,  "  The  Jews,  Your  Majesty." 

We  read  in  Deuteronomy,  "  The  Lord  shall  scat- 
ter thee  among  all  peoples,  from  the  one  end  of  the 
earth  even  unto  the  other."  Says  the  same  author- 
ity, "A  byword  among  all  the  peoples."  " Sifted" 
is  the  expression  of  Amos,  "  among  all  the  nations." 
"  Wanderers"  is  the  apt  description  of  Hosea. 
"  An  hissing  and  a  curse,"  declares  Jeremiah.  How 
literally  has  it  all  been  fulfilled  !  The  Jews  are 
found  everywhere.  Missionaries  have  come  across 
them  in  China,  and  even  in  Central  Africa.  And 
a  few  years  ago  this  paragraph  was  going  the  round 
of  the  religious  press:  "Beaconsfield  has  introduced 
into  Cyprus,  among  the  native  troops  from  India, 
some  Hebrews  who  claim  to  be  descendants  of  the 
mercantile  colony  ....  planted  by  the  navy  of 
Solomon."  We  could  believe  almost  anything  of 
so  romantic,  so  peculiar  a  people. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  so  much  used  to  be  written 
about  "  the  lost  tribes  of  Israel,"  supposed  to  be 
hidden  away  somewhere  in  the  earth,  while  when 
our  American  Indians  were  discovered  it  was  grave- 
ly discussed  in  learned  circles  if  they  were  not  the 
long-lost  tribes,  while  again  some  now  are  maintain- 

14 


4J10  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

ing  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  are  the  lost  tribes.  Still, 
that  word  "  lost "  appears  to  me  altogether  inap- 
propriate when  applied  to  a  people  we  could  not 
lose  sight  of  if  we  tried.  There  apparently  is  no 
country  where  they  do  not  dwell,  "scattered"  as 
they  are  from  pole  to  pole,  "sifted"  throughout  the 
world ;  and  it  need  not  be  said  that  they  have  been 
"wanderers,"  giving  point  to  the  common  phrase, 
"  wandering  Jew,"  and  that  they  have  been  a  "  by- 
word "  and  a  "  hissing." 

Read  mediaeval  history  especially,  when  the  Jews 
had  no  civil  rights,  when  they  were  burned  by  the 
thousands  and  when  they  underwent  horrors  whose 
very  perusal  makes  the  blood  run  cold.  Read  of 
the  more  recent  Russian  atrocities,  and  of  the  pres- 
ent race-prejudice  against  them  at  Saratoga,  where 
they  are  excluded  from  a  leading  hotel.  All  down 
the  ages  they  have  been  a  marked  class,  and  even 
now,  in  Webster's  latest,  we  have  the  definition  of 
"  to  jew  "  as  to  cheat,  to  swindle.  Believers  and 
unbelievers  alike  have  used  the  term  as  one  of  re- 
proach, and  so  have  been  verifying  prophecy.  How 
can  this  peculiar  accordance  between  prediction  and 
fact  be  explained?  Is  history  with  its  wicked  men 
even  in  collusion  with  prophecy  to  pass  a  fraud 
upon  the  world  ?  Nay,  rather  men  have  been  un- 
conscious instruments  in  establishing  the  word 
spoken  of  old  by  the  Lord.  What  a  peculiar  people, 
when  not  Christians  alone,  but  infidels  also,  have 
been  playing  into  God's  hands  to  bring  about  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  PECULIAR  JEWS.    211 

fulfillment   of    prophecies    uttered    hundreds    and 
thousands  of  years  ago  ! 

5.  One  more  thing  with  reference  to  this  peculiar 
people.  It  is  distinctly  taught  that  as  a  nation 
they  are  to  be  converted  to  Christ,  and  even, 
according  to  some  scholars,  restored  to  Palestine. 
Zechariah  asserts,  "  They  shall  look  unto  me  whom 
they  have  pierced,  and  they  shall  mourn/'  "  I  will 
plant  them  upon  their  own  land,"  speaks  the  Lord 
by  Amos,  "and  they  shall  no  more  be  plucked  up." 
Jeremiah  states,  "  I  will  gather  you  from  all  the 
nations,  and  from  all  the  places  whither  I  have 
driven  you,  saith  the  Lord ;  and  I  will  bring  you 
again  unto  the  place  whence  I  caused  you  to  be 
carried  away."  "  I  will,"  says  God  by  Ezekiel, 
"  assemble  you  out  of  the  countries  where  ye  have 
been  scattered,  and  I  will  give  you  the  land  of 
Israel."  Though  these  passages  may  have  had  a 
primary,  they  certainly  have  not  had  a  complete, 
fulfillment ;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  look 
strongly  toward  a  literal  restoration  to  the  Holy 
Laud.  Be  that  as  it  may  (and  it  is  but  fair  to  say 
that  the  weight  of  scholarship  seems  to  be  against 
it),  a  national  conversion  is  predicted  without  doubt. 
Paul  argues  this  expressly  wheu  he  says  that  with 
the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles  "all  Israel  shall  be 
saved  " ;  and  such  has  been  the  general  belief  of 
the  Church.  As  far  back  as  the  year  400,  Augus- 
tine, the  great  Latin  Father,  said,  "  That  in  the 
la^t  times,  before  the  judgment,  the  Jews  (by  means 


212  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

of  Elias,  who  shall  expound  the  law  to  them)  shall 
believe  in  Christ,  is  a  thing  much  asserted  in  the 
sayings  and  hearts  of  the  faithful."  In  a  similar 
strain  the  golden-mouthed  Chrysostom,  the  great 
Greek  preacher,  spoke;  and  such  has  been  the  faith 
in  all  ages. 

The  Jews  are  to  be  converted ;  they  are  yet  to 
figure  largely  in  history.  What  if  they  are  few 
and  far  between  ?  what  if  they  do  not  exceed  seven 
millions  in  number?  It  does  not  require  many 
Jews  to  count  for  something.  One  Jew,  and  he 
taken  out  of  prison,  ruled  Egypt,  the  richest  coun- 
try of  the  time.  Another  Joseph  may  be  born. 
One  Jew,  and  he  a  poor  captive  of  war,  reigned 
over  Babylon,  the  most  splendid  empire  of  antiquity. 
Another  Daniel  may  be  born.  One  Jew,  and  he 
nailed  to  a  cross,  now  sways  all  Christendom,  the 
most  extensive  kingdom  ever  founded.  With  refer- 
ence to  this  Jew  everything  is  dated.  The  infidel 
recognizes  him  by  the  year  which  he  writes  at 
beginning  a  letter  or  which  he  publishes  on  the 
title-page  of  his  skeptical  book.  When  a  gov- 
ernment coins  money  and  when  the  commercial 
world  transacts  business,  it  is  all  done  in  some 
"  year  of  our  Jjovd"  who  was  a  Jew.  Aside  from 
this  most  prominent  of  all  Hebrew  characters, 
the  Jew  still  keeps  coming  up  in  history  with 
startling  conspicuousuess,  as  if  to  remind  man- 
kind that  his  mission  is  not  yet  finished,  as  if 
to  proclaim  that  he  is  still  alive  and  that  he  means 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  PECULIAR  JEWS.    213 

to  live.     He  will  not  down,  any  more  than  Ban- 
quo's  ghost. 

Now  he  appears  as  a  shining  star  in  the  astronom- 
ical firmament,  Herschel,  or  as  the  great  Church 
historian,  JNeander ;  again  as  the  profound  philoso- 
pher, Spinoza  or  Mendelssohn ;  once  more  as  the 
marvelous  musician,  the  grandson  Mendelssohn ; 
or  as  a  striking  figure  in  recent  French  history, 
Gambetta;  or  still  as  the  possessor  of  immense 
wealth,  Rothschild,  who  through  loans  to  the  Turk- 
ish government  is  said  to  have  a  practical  mortgage 
on  the  Holy  Land,  and  who  if  he  has  could  readily 
open  the  way  for  a  literal  return  of  his  people  to 
Palestine,  and  who  at  least  does  control  the  money- 
market  of  Europe  and  of  the  world  ;  or  the  con- 
spicuous Jew  appears  as  "the  man  of  destiny"  in 
Beaconsfield,  who  a  few  years  ago,  whether  we  liked 
or  disliked  him,  had  as  England's  prime  minis- 
ter more  power  than  any  other  one  person  on  the 
face  of  the  globe.  No  !  no  !  it  does  not  require 
many  Jews  to  shape  history ;  one  can  do  it,  and 
does  do  it  every  now  and  then,  as  if  to  keep  our 
memories  stirred  up  to  an  appreciation  of  his 
splendid  capabilities.  The  British  occupancy  of 
Egypt  is  stated  to  be  "  largely  in  the  interest  of 
Jewish  capitalists,  holders  of  Egyptian  bonds  '' ;  and 
now  two  Hebrews  are  even  said  to  have  bought  the 
site  of  ancient  Babylon.  The  Jews  thus  seem  to  be 
getting  possession,  not  only  of  their  own  land,  but 
also  of  the  lands  of  their  former  oppressors,  Egyptian 


214  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

and  Babylonian.  There  is  a  millennial  future  for 
the  human  race,  and  the  peculiar  Jew  is  to  bear 
a  part  in  the  momentous  issues  out  of  which  shall 
be  evolved  the  new  creation,  when  all,  both  Jew 
and  Gentile,  shall  know  the  Lord  Jesus. 

Finally,  in  the  study  of  such  a  subject  how  we 
are  impressed  with  the  fact  that  Jehovah  is  from 
everlasting  to  everlasting  !  He  is  never  in  a  hurry 
to  accomplish  his  plans.  He  sits  on  his  throne  and 
controls  stupendous  movements  which  extend  down 
the  ages.  Not  only  in  geological  formations,  but 
in  spiritual  developments,  he  makes  haste  slowly. 
Vast  stretches  of  time  are  needed  to  understand 
God.  Away  back  in  the  beginning,  during  the 
successive  steps  of  evolving  order  out  of  chaos,  it 
is  recorded,  "  And  God  saw  that  it  Avas  good  " ;  and 
perhaps  only  he  could  have  seen  the  good  then. 
When  vegetation  was  so  rank  that  the  earth  must 
have  seemed  one  tangled  mass  of  gigantic  weeds, 
only  the  foreseeing  eye  of  Divinity  could  have 
been  pleased.  "  No  mere  man  "  could  have  recog- 
nized in  the  luxuriant  growth  great  beds  of  coal 
for  keeping  teeming  populations  in  the  far  future 
warm  and  comfortable. 

We  sometimes  now  are  inclined  to  think  that  the 
world  is  overrun  with  wickedness,  and  we  query 
what  will  come  out  of  the  mass  of  corruption ;  but 
God  looks  on  and  gives  us  the  quiet  assurance  that 
"all  things  work  together  for  good,"  and  we  are  to 
trust   him   for   the    verifying   of  this  declaration. 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  PECULIAR  JEWS.    215 

The  good  time  may  not  come  in  this  generation  or 
in  the  next  or  in  the  next,  but  we  can  rest  in  faith 
upon  Him  whose  word  shall  never  fail,  though  the 
accomplishment  may  demand  cycle  upon  cycle  of 
time.  Through  thousands  of  years  he  has  been 
carrying  the  Jews,  and  he  will  not  relax  his  pur- 
pose till  all  we  who  are  his  peculiar  people,  who 
"dwell  alone"  and  are  separate  from  the  world, 
have  been  brought  out  of  the  great  tribulation,  out 
of  the  strife  and  the  conflict,  out  of  sorrow  and 
trial  and  temptation,  out  of  disappointment  and 
woe,  to  join  in  song  of  praise  around  the  throne  in 
heaven : 

"Glory  he  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy 
Ghost : 
As  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be ;  world 
without  end.    Amen." 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS— EGYPT 
AND  ASSYRIA. 

"If  these  shall  hold  their  peace,  the  stones  will  cry  out." — 
Luke  19  :  40. 

WHEN  in  the  triumphal  entry  of  Jesus  into 
Jerusalem  the  multitudes  shouted,  "Blessed 
is  the  King  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord/' 
the  Pharisees  wanted  the  disciples  rebuked  for  their 
glorification  of  the  Master,  who,  however,  replied, 
"  If  these  shall  hold  their  peace,  the  stones  will  cry 
out."  Numerous  have  been  the  defences  of  the 
Bible,  and  they  are  constantly  multiplying.  Christ 
has  still  many  enthusiastic  followers  who  are  exalt- 
ing his  name  and  his  word.  My  voice  has  been 
lifted  up  to  assist  in  swelling  the  hallelujah  chorus. 
How  can  one  keep  silent?  Who  would  not  like  to 
be  able  to  set  forth  the  truth  with  greater  power  ? 
There  is  appreciation  of  Antony's  feeling  when  he 
said  that  had  he  the  eloquence  of  Brutus,  he  would 
make 

"The  stones  of  Rome  to  rise  in  mutiny." 

God,  in  this  century  of  most  aggressive  attack  upon 

216 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS.      217 

the  Scriptures,  has  put  lips  iu  the  inanimate,  as 
we  shall  see  by  a  consideration  of  the  Bible  and  the 
monuments. 

The  nature  of  this  particular  kind  of  Scripture 
verification  has  already  been  foreshadowed  by  refer- 
ences to  the  Moabite  Stone  and  the  Nabonnedus 
Cylinder,  the  signets  of  Haggai  and  Jeremiah, 
the  actual  unearthing  of  Pithom,  one  of  the  store- 
cities  built  by  the  Hebrew  slaves,  and  the  statues  and 
massive  works  and  tombs  of  the  Pharaohs.  The 
growing  importance  of  this  line  of  evidences  in 
the  excavations  which  are  being  so  diligently  pros- 
ecuted in  lands  covered  or  touched  by  scriptural 
story  would  seem  to  make  advisable  a  separate  and 
distinct  treatment  of  this  interesting  phase  of  the 
subject.  Whole  volumes  are  being  written  upon 
this  special  department  of  biblical  study,  and  with- 
in the  space  at  our  command  we  can  only  glance  at 
the  striking  facts,  while  yet  the  whole  ground  will 
be  substantially  covered.  The  apparent  discrep- 
ancies in  the  two  records,  written  and  monumental, 
will  doubtless  continue  to  disappear  as  inscriptions 
are  deciphered.  For  our  present  purpose  of  sim- 
ply opening  up  this  boundless  field  of  investigation 
it  is  sufficient  to  note  the  positive  confirmations  be- 
ing given  by  the  very  stones  to  the  holy  oracles.  The 
ancients,  who  would  have  least  desired  to  establish 
the  sacred  writings  of  the  Hebrews,  are  preaching 
to  us,  in  a  more  real  sense  than  Shakespeare  had  in 
mind,  "sermons  in  stones." 


218  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

1.  Egypt  is  yielding  up  her  secrets.  Her  mon- 
uments have  ever  been  impressive.  Her  pyramids 
and  obelisks  have  been  the  wonder  of  the  world. 
Even  the  ruins  of  her  mighty  temples  are  of  aston- 
ishing beauty.  Of  the  mass  of  material  thus  put 
at  our  disposal,  while  the  pickaxe  of  the  excavator 
is  ever  disclosing  more,  we  shall  have  to  be  content 
to  use  but  a  small  part. 

Fifteen  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era 
Amenophis  III.  erected  near  Thebes,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Nile,  two  colossal  statues,  originally  with 
their  crowns  about  seventy  feet  in  height,  which, 
now  uncrowned,  are  still  sitting  in  majestic  repose 
where  they  were  first  located.  One  of  these  has 
been  famous  in  history  as  "  vocal  Memnon,"  which 
was  long  said  to  emit  at  daybreak  a  harp-like  sound. 
This  fabled  music,  which  has  been  the  inspiration 
of  poets  ever  since,  may  not  have  been,  after  all,  a 
mythological  fancy,  but  a  natural  and  actual  phe- 
nomenon, for  certain  cooled  stones  now,  on  receiv- 
ing the  warming  rays  of  the  morning  sun,  are  said 
to  crackle  or  vibrate  with  a  melody  not  unlike  that 
resulting  from  the  breaking  of  a  harp-string.  In- 
deed, all  the  statues  of  Egypt  have  become  vocal 
since  we  have  learned  in  the  present  century  to 
read  the  inscriptions  thereon. 

The  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  long  baffled  the  best 
modern  scholarship.  The  strange  alphabet,  which 
consisted  of  animals  and  birds  with  such  interven- 
ing marks  as  children  might  make,  was  for  centu- 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS.     219 

ries  wholly  enigmatical.  The  knowledge  of  the 
mysterious  characters  had  perished  from  the  earth. 
What  eager  desire  there  was  to  read  the  secrets 
which  the  unknown  syllabary  was  believed  to  con- 
tain !  Would  there  ever  be  a  successful  decipherer? 
At  this  stage  of  the  problem  there  came  a  provi- 
dential discovery.  In  1799  a  French  officer  was 
excavating  for  a  building  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Rosetta  branch  of  the  Nile,  when  he  found  what  is 
known  as  the  Rosetta  Stone,  now  safely  resting  in 
the  British  Museum.  This  is  a  slab  of  black  mar- 
ble a  little  over  three  feet  high,  nearly  two  feet  and 
a  half  wide  and  ten  inches  thick.  It  contained  an 
inscription  of  one  of  the  Ptolemies,  and  the  date 
was  about  195  B.  c.  Fortunately,  the  recorded 
decree  was  iu  three  languages — hieroglyphic,  cur- 
sive Egyptian  and  Greek.  The  last,  being  well 
understood,  gave  a  key  to  the  unknown  tongues, 
and  in  course  of  time,  under  the  patient  labors  of 
various  scholars,  the  hieroglyphics  became  intelli- 
gible, and  the  results  reached  were  confirmed  by  the 
knowledge  gained  from  a  second  trilingual  inscrip- 
tion (that  of  San),  brought  to  light  in  1866.  This 
dated  still  farther  back,  to  238  B.  c,  and  the  hiero- 
glyphic portion  was  more  complete  than  on  the 
Rosetta  Stone.  Thus,  when  human  learning  stood 
dumb  and  wondering  before  the  Egyptian  hiero- 
glyphics, Providence  came  to  the  aid  of  scholars 
by  revealing  stones  brought  forth  from  their  hid- 
ing-places.    The  inanimate  rock   became  animate; 


220  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

it  spoke  out,  and  opened  the  way  for  the  reading 
of  the  monuments,  to  which  we  will  now  listen. 

On  the  site  of  old  and  once  proud  Thebes  is  a 
massive  pile,  at  present  known  as  the  temple  of 
Karnak,  which  covers  five  times  as  much  ground 
as  St.  Paul's  in  London,  and  which  occupies  more 
than  twice  as  much  space  as  St.  Peter's  at  Rome. 
On  its  walls  are  sculptured  inscriptions  which  with 
our  recently  acquired  knowledge  we  can  read. 
Now,  there  is  a  scriptural  record  like  this  :  "  And 
it  came  to  pass  in  the  fifth  year  of  King  Rehoboam 
that  Shishak  king  of  Egypt  came  up  against  Jeru- 
salem." Is  there  any  monumental  confirmation  of 
this  statement?  On  that  very  temple  of  Karnak, 
about  one  thousand  years  before  Christ,  Shishak  (or 
Sheshonk)  I.  inscribed  in  stone  an  account  of  a 
successful  military  expedition  of  his,  and  among  his 
conquests  he  expressly  names  the  "  kingdom  of  Ju- 
dah,"  or  "  Judah-king,"  besides  several  familiar 
points  in  Palestine. 

These  direct  agreements  of  scriptural  and  monu- 
mental history  are  numerous,  and  let  me  next  call 
attention  to  a  more  indirect  example  of  harmony,  for 
confessedly  the  more  subtle  proofs  are  the  stronger. 
When  witnesses  agree  without  design,  and  without 
its  appearing  on  the  face  of  the  testimony  that  they 
were  coming  to  the  same  point,  the  result  thus 
reached  is  irresistibly  conclusive,  because  there  is 
evidently  no  collusion. 

In  the  second  book  of  the  Kings  we  read  of  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS.     221 

Syrians  saving,  "  Lo,  the  king  of  Israel  hath  hired 
against  ns  the  kings  of  the  Hittites  and  the  kings 
of  the  Egyptians."  A  critic  of  the  Bible  not  many 
years  ago  referred  to  the  "  unhistorical "  character 
of  this  passage,  because  the  insignificant  Hittites 
were  ranged  right  along  with  the  Egyptians,  a 
great  and  powerful  people.  But  were  the  Hittites 
so  unimportant  ?  Most  of  us  have  been  accustomed 
to  think  of  them  as  we  would  of  a  petty  tribe  of 
Indians,  like  the  Cherokees  or  Choctaws.  But 
there  are  various  biblical  intimations  that  they  once 
played  a  leading  part  on  the  world's  stage  of  action. 
Therefore  the  Bible,  such  has  been  the  claim,  is  to 
be  discredited.  To  be  sure,  Uriah  was  a  Hittite, 
and  his  wife  Bathsheba  became  the  mother  of  Solo- 
mon and  an  ancestress  of  Christ;  but,  after  all,  did 
the  Hittites  ever  occupy  a  prominent  place  in  his- 
tory? It  has  been  learned  in  the  last  few  years  that 
they  did.  Anciently  they  contested  the  supremacv 
of  the  East  not  only  with  Assyria,  but  also  with 
Egypt.  In  the  long  struggle  with  the  latter  coun- 
try, when  it  was  in  its  prime  under  Rameses  the 
Great,  the  king  of  the  Hittites  could  finally  treat 
with  the  great  Pharaoh  on  equal  terms,  and  their 
treaty  of  peace  we  have  graven  in  stone  on  the  wall 
of  the  temple  at  Karnak.  The  parties  named 
are  the  "  great  king  of  Khcta"  and  the  "  great 
prince  of  Egypt."  The  inscription  professes  to  be 
a  copy  of  the  terms  proposed  by  the  former,  who 
had  them  written  on  a  "silver  tablet,"  whose  con- 


222  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

tents  the  latter  had  chiseled  in  stone  upon  his  finest 
temple.  The  proposition  in  general  was  thus 
stated :  "  From  this  very  day  forward,  that  there 
may  subsist  a  good  friendship  and  a  good  under- 
standing." It  was  an  alliance  offensive  and  defen- 
sive, and  it  was  made  in  1354  b.  c.  Thus  the 
very  stones  at  Karnak  cry  out  to  the  greatness 
of  the  Hittite  empire,  to  which  the  Scriptures  by 
implication  witness. 

ISTor  is  this  all:  other  stones  show  that  the  Hit- 
tites  formerly  extended  their  sway  from  the  Eu- 
phrates on  the  east  to  the  iEgean  Sea  on  the  west. 
This  has  been  curiously  determined  within  the  last 
dozen  years,  and  the  following  of  the  thread  which 
has  restored  a  "  forgotten  empire  "  to  history  is  not 
without  interest.  The  pass  of  Karabel  is  a  narrow 
defile  in  the  ancient  road  connecting  Ephesus  on 
the  south  with  Sardis  and  Smyrna  on  the  north. 
Herodotus  wrote  that  Sesostris,  who  was  Rameses 
of  Egypt,  left  memorials  of  himself  in  the  pass — 
namely,  "two  images  cut  by  him  in  the  rock;"  "on 
either  side  a  man  is  carved."  These  having  been 
seen  in  the  present  century,  Professor  Sayce  of  Ox- 
ford decided  to  go  and  give  them  a  careful  ex- 
amination. He  was  incited  to  this  by  the  finding 
of  stones  in  Hamath  whose  hieroglyphics  were  be- 
lieved to  be  of  Hittite  origin,  and  especially  since 
there  were  later  discoveries  of  similar  inscriptions 
at  Carchemish,  the  great  Hittite  capital  on  the 
banks  of  the  Euphrates.     Rock-statues  and  stones, 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS.      223 

with  the  same  unknown  characters,  kept  coming 
to  light-here  and  there.  The  Oxford  scholar  had 
an  idea  that  the  figures  in  the  pass  of  Karabel, 
which  Herodotus  had  thought  to  be  of  Egyptian 
origin,  were  really  Hittite  remains.  To  determine 
what  the  fact  was,  he  visited  the  pass  in  1879,  and 
he  ascertained  that  one  of  the  sculptured  warriors 
did  have  the  same  hieroglyphics  as  appeared  in 
the  other  Hittite  inscriptions,  while  the  style  of  art 
was  likewise  Hittite.  The  second  figure  was  de- 
faced, but  was  evidently  the  companion-piece  de- 
scribed by  the  Greek  historian  twenty-three  centu- 
ries ago. 

Then  not  far  from  Karabel  is  another  monument 
of  Hittite  art.  In  the  high  cliffs  of  Sipylus  there 
is  carved  in  the  living  rock  a  woman,  and  since, 
when  rain  runs  down  over  the  stone  figure,  there  is 
the  appearance  of  tears  being  shed  by  the  statue, 
the  Greeks  naturally  saw  in  the  sitting  goddess 
their  weeping  Niobe  turned  to  stone.  Homer  had 
spoken  of  her  mourning  over  the  loss  of  her  twelve 
children  till  she  was  petrified  —  "transformed  to 
stone,"  said  the  blind  bard,  "  mid  the  rocks  and 
desert  hills  of  Sipylus."  But  both  Herodotus  and 
Homer  were  mistaken  in  their  identification  of  the 
figures  in  the  Karabel  Pass  and  on  Mount  Sipylus 
with  Egyptian  and  Grecian  hero  and  heroine,  as  Hit- 
tite characters  at  both  places  prove.  The  fond  dreams 
of  the  cultured  Greeks  must  be  shattered  in  these 
latter  days,  and  were  they  to  come  to  life  we  could 


224  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

only  say  comfortingly,  Be  not  over  your  loss,  "  like 
Niobe,  all  tears."  Those  Hittite  monuments  from 
the  Euphrates  clear  across  Asia  Minor  show,  equally 
with  the  sculptured  treaty  with  Rameses  at  Karnak, 
how  extensive  must  have  been  the  kingdom  of  the 
Hittites,  who  have  been  resuscitated  from  an  obliv- 
ion of  centuries  by  the  speaking  of  long  dumb 
stones. 

The  rocky  lips  are  yet  silent  in  one  respect.  The 
strange  script  on  Hittite  remains  has  not  yet  been 
satisfactorily  deciphered,  but  Professor  Sayce  be- 
lieves "the  mute  stones  will  yet  be  taught  to  speak" 
when  more  monuments  have  been  disinterred,  and 
when  perhaps  there  shall  be  discovered  some  bilin- 
gual or  trilingual  text  to  help  in  the  decipherment. 
Further  explorations  among  buried  cities  may  yet 
reveal  a  key  to  the  mysterious  Hittite  tongue,  of 
which  the  value  of  a  few  characters  has  been  ascer- 
tained from  a  brief  solitary  bilingual  inscription  of 
the  first  century  on  a  silver  boss  now  lost,  though 
not  till  its  impression  had  been  secured.  Since 
Rameses  married  the  daughter  of  the  Hittite  mon- 
arch in  order  to  cement  the  famous  treaty  they 
made,  if  her  body  should  ever  be  found,  as  the 
mummy  of  her  royal  husband  has  been  exhumed, 
possibly,  as  another  has  suggested,  there  may  be 
with  her  remains  the  "  silver  tablet "  from  which 
the  inscription  at  Karnak  was  copied  in  stone  thir- 
teen and  a  half  centuries  before  Christ.  Or  this 
metallic  plate,  on  whose  surface  the  characters  were 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS.     225 

hammered  from  the  reverse  side,  may  be  hanging 
in  the  sepulchral  vault  of  the  father  of  Pharaoh's 
bride,  in  the  subterranean  tomb  of  him  who  had 
the  silver  tablet  inscribed.  But  the  stones  have 
already  spoken  with  sufficient  distinctness  to  justify 
the  sacred  writer  in  the  coupling  as  equals  of  "  the 
kings  of  the  Hittites  and  the  kings  of  the  Egyp- 
tians." 

As  to  late  results  of  Egyptian  explorations,  a  most 
remarkable  discovery  should  have  a  passing  notice. 
An  early  monarch  (Khunaten,  or  Amenophis  IV.) 
removed  his  capital  from  Thebes  to  a  point  north 
thereof,  at  Tell  el-Amarna,  to  which  he  transferred 
the  national  archives,  placing  them  in  the  palace 
library  there.  These  were  uncovered  in  1887,  and 
hundreds  of  clay  tablets  inscribed  with  Babylonian 
characters,  the  court  language  of  the  time,  have 
appeared.  They  contain  official  communications 
from  surrounding  peoples  to  the  rulers  of  Egypt. 
There  are  despatches  from  the  governor  of  Jeru- 
salem itself,  as  well  as  from  the  farther  East. 
These  show  that  historic  records  in  alphabetic  form 
were  common  in  the  fifteenth  century  before  Christ; 
that  is,  before  the  Exodus  and  before  the  time  of 
Moses.  There  is  thus  overthrown  at  one  stroke  a 
strong  position  of  the  skepticism  which  has  been 
claiming  that  the  reputed  author  of  the  Pentateuch 
is  not  to  be  credited,  because  there  were  only  unre- 
liable traditions  which  could  have  been  used,  there 
having  been  no  written  documents  at  so  remote  a 

15 


226  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

period.  That  single  archaeological  revelation  in 
Upper  Egypt  utterly  sweeps  away  a  great  mass  of 
learned  infidel  arguments  directed  against  the 
authenticity  and  trustworthiness  of  the  Mosaic 
books.  Before  Moses  was,  were  written  these  tab- 
lets, which  prove  that  there  was  an  active  literary 
correspondence  carried  on  so  long  ago  throughout 
the  Orient.  The  stones  make  short  work  of  much 
high-sounding  criticism. 

2.  Turning  next  to  Assyria,  its  secrets  could  be 
disclosed  only  by  the  mastery  of  another  language, 
more  mysterious,  if  anything,  than  the  Egyptian 
hieroglyphics.  There  were  strange  arrow-headed 
characters  that  seemed  incapable  of  being  deci- 
phered. And  yet  a  cuneiform  literature,  repre- 
senting a  spoken  tongue  of  remote  antiquity,  was 
rising  from  the  dust  of  ages.  The  books  of  dis- 
tant centuries  were  constantly  being  exhumed — 
volumes  not  written  with  pen  and  ink  on  perish- 
able paper,  but  consisting  of  plastic  clay  which  had 
been  cut  with  a  metal  stylus,  and  which  had  been 
afterward  dried  in  the  sun  or  baked  with  fire. 
The  clayey  material  was  wrought  into  bricks,  that, 
suitably  inscribed,  were  laid  in  magnificent  build- 
ings, or  into  tablets  that  graced  various  niches,  or 
into  prisms  and  cylinders  which  were  often  pierced 
through  the  centre  as  if  for  mounting,  so  as  to  be 
read  by  turning  the  successive  sides  to  the  student. 
Vast  numbers  of  these  books  in  stone  have  been 
gathered  from  Oriental  ruins  within   the  present 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS.     227 

century,  till  the  Assyrian  literature  thus  collected 
already  comprises  more  than  the  whole  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  is  steadily  increasing  in  bulk. 

We  do  not  know  what  may  yet  be  brought  to 
light — perhaps  that  tablet  upon  which  Ezekiel 
speaks  of  having  made  pictorial  impressions  with 
prophetic  intimations.  In  strict  accordance  with 
the  custom  of  the  age  and  its  people,  the  prophet 
says  that  when  he  was  a  captive  "  in  the  land  of  the 
Chaldeans "  he  received  this  divine  command : 
"  Take  thee  a  tile  and  lay  it  before  thee,  and  por- 
tray upon  it  a  city,  even  Jerusalem ;  and  lay  siege 
against  it,  and  build  forts  against  it,  and  cast  up  a 
mount  against  it;  set  camps  also  against  it,  and 
plant  battering-rams  against  it  round  about."  It 
was  soft  clay  which  he  was  thus  to  manipulate  iu 
order  to  teach  an  important  lesson,  to  furnish  "a 
sign  to  the  house  of  Israel."  This  little  incident 
shows  that  Ezekiel  was  really  among  those  Eastern 
people — that  he  was  an  historic  person.  And  whe- 
ther his  impressed  clay  is  ever  discovered  or  not, 
there  certainly  are  most  remarkable  discoveries 
being  made  along  this  very  line. 

In  the  excavations  at  Nineveh  a  whole  library 
has  been  dug  from  the  ruins.  The  royal  collection 
of  Assurbanipal,  the  Sardanapalus  of  the  Greeks, 
after  having  been  buried  for  twenty-five  hundred 
years,  has  been  opened  to  the  public.  It  was  no 
small  library,  either,  with  its  thousands  of  tab- 
lets  and    fragments  thereof.      But  how  were  the 


228  THE  BIBLE  VERIFIED. 

cuneiform  characters  of  these  books  ever  read  in 
these  our  own  times  ?  They  required  long  and  close 
study.  There  would  be  inscriptions  which  would 
begin  in  the  same  way,  with  the  exception  of  one 
word.  The  thought  occurred  that  this  varying 
word  was  the  name  of  the  monarch,  which  of  course 
was  changed  from  time  to  time,  while  the  royal 
titles  remained  the  same.  Every  sovereign  of  Eng- 
land since  Henry  VIII.  has  been  called  "  Defender 
of  the  Faith,"  and  one  unacquainted  with  English 
would  see  that  title  again  and  again  in  the  list  of 
British  rulers,  whose  names  would  yet  be  ever  varying 
from  Henry  to  Victoria.  An  acute  observer  no- 
ticed something  similar  to  this  in  Assyrian  annals. 
Then  with  the  aid  of  his  knowledge  of  history  he 
experimented.  He  would  guess  that  certain  arrow- 
headed  marks  stood  for  Darius,  of  whom  he  had 
learned  through  Greek  sources.  Going  forward, 
he  would  try  Xerxes  for  the  same  number  of  cunei- 
form characters.  That  worked  all  right  for  his 
conjectural  theory,  since  the  equivalent  of  the  letter 
r  in  each  name  came  just  in  the  right  place.  De- 
scending the  line,  Artaxerxes  should  be  the  same  as 
Xerxes  with  a  prefix,  and  it  was  even  so.  Thus 
a  clue  was  gotten  to  a  successful  decipherment. 

Then  there  came  in  a  stone  to  help.     The  patri- 
arch Job  once  said  : 

"  Oh  that  my  words  were  now  written  ! 
Oh  that  they  were  inscribed  in  a  book ! 
That  with  an  iron  pen  and  lead 
They  were  graven  in  the  rock  for  ever !" 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS.      229 

The  Persian  monarch  Darius  did  just  such  writing. 
On  the  now  famous  Rock  of  Behistun,  within  his 
ancient  realm,  he  made  a  trilingual  inscription. 
The  face  of  the  rock  lie  smoothed  with  great  care, 
and  at  an  elevation  which  must  have  rendered  lad- 
ders or  scaffolding  necessary  he  wrote  with  a  pen 
of  iron  in  imperishable  stone  that  which  we  can 
read  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  two  and  a  half  mil- 
lenniums. The  inscription  is  in  three  languages, 
Persian,  Median  and  Babylonian,  and  the  compari- 
sons which  could  thus  be  instituted  helped  to  fix 
the  values  of  the  arrow-headed  characters,  and  by 
patient  toil  a  lost  tongue  has  been  recovered. 

The  world  was  amazed  and  even  skeptical,  but  to 
test  the  accuracy  of  the  renderings  an  inscribed  cyl- 
inder would  be  given  to  two  and  three  experts,  and 
a  committee  examining  the  results,  arrived  at  sepa- 
rately and  independently,  found  there  was  substan- 
tial agreement,  and  doubts  could  be  entertained  no 
longer.  The  Rock  of  Behistun  played  an  import- 
ant part  in  getting  at  the  meaning  of  the  cunei- 
form characters ;  the  stone  cried  out  its  assistance 
in  the  mastering  of  a  language  whose  literature  was 
so  strongly  to  confirm  the  Bible.  Well  did  Darius 
include  in  his  long  inscription  this  appeal  to  the 
future  observer :  "  Thou,  who  shalt  hereafter  see 
this  tablet  which  I  have  written,  and  these  figures, 
destroy  them  not."  The  inscription  in  these  far 
subsequent  times  has  turned  out  to  be  much  more 
important  than  even  Darius  could  have  imagined. 


230  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

What,  then,  are  some  of  the  confirmations  which 
Scripture  receives  from  the  tablets  and  cylinders  of 
Assyria  ?  They  give  an  account  of  creation  closely 
resembling  the  narrative  in  Genesis.  They  tell  us  of 
a  great  deluge  like  the  Biblical  Flood,  and  while 
Assyria  and  Babylonia  looked  at  this  catastrophe 
from  the  polytheistic  point  of  view,  rather  than 
from  the  monotheistic  standpoint  of  Scripture,  the 
same  original  event  is  manifestly  described.  Listen 
to  what  the  ancient  monuments  say :  "  Build  the 
ship,  save  what  thou  canst  of  the  germ  of  life ;" 
"bitumen  I  poured  over  the  outside,"  "bitumen 
I  poured  over  the  inside;"  "bid  the  seed  of  life  of 
every  kind  mount  in  the  midst  of  the  ship  ;"  "  the 
deluge  of  Rimmon  reaches  unto  heaven ;"  "  like 
reeds  the  corpses  floated  ;"  "  I  sent  forth  a  dove/' 
"  and  it  came  back  ;"  "  I  sent  forth  a  swallow," 
"  and  it  came  back ;"  "  I  sent  forth  a  raven,"  "  it 
did  not  return ;"  "  in  the  mountain  of  Nizir 
stopped  the  ship ;"  "  I  built  an  altar  on  the  peak 
of  the  mountain  ;"  "  the  great  goddess  at  her  ap- 
proach lighted  up  the  rainbow."  Such  are  detached 
sentences  from  what  was  written  on  clay  and  placed 
in  royal  libraries  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago, 
and  we  to-day  can  read  the  wedge-shaped  in- 
scriptions on  baked  tablets  that  have  risen  from  the 
graves  of  a  dim  and  remote  past.  The  very  stones 
are  crying  out  that  a  primeval  flood  is  no  Biblical 
myth. 

We  read  much  in  Scripture  regarding  the  king  of 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS.      231 

Assyria  who  under  various  name-  had  a  part  in  shap- 
ing the  history  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy  from  time 
to  time.  There  is  Shalmaneser  II.,  who  has  left  his 
own  records  graven  in  stone.  He  came  to  the  Assyr- 
ian throne  858  B.  c.  He  marched  eastward  and 
inscribed  his  victories  on  the  rocks  of  Armenia, 
and  there  with  pen  of  iron  were  traced  these  words 
concerning  those  he  overthrew :  "  Ten  thousand 
men  belonging  to  Ahab  of  Israel."  Then  a  small 
obelisk  of  black  marble,  giving  the  annals  of  this 
same  Shalmaneser,  now  stands  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum, and  upon  it  we  read  of  the  subjugation  of 
another  Israelitish  king,  who  is  expressly  named 
"  Jehu,"  whose  ambassadors  are  represented  in 
relief  as  bringing  tribute,  and  the  peculiar  features 
which  still  characterize  the  Hebrew7  race  are  easily 
recognizable. 

We  read  in  Isaiah  of  the  capture  of  "  Ashdod  " 
by  *'  Sargon  the  king  of  Assyria."  For  twenty- 
five  centuries  this  passage  of  Scripture  was  the  sole 
witness  we  had  that  there  was  such  an  Assyrian 
monarch,  but  among  the  recent  discoveries  is  the 
fragment  of  a  cylinder  bearing  the  name  of  this 
very  king,  Sargon,  and  giving  a  description  of  the 
identical  expedition  to  the  Mediterranean  sea-coast 
mentioned  by  the  prophet ;  while  also  his  existence 
clears  up  difficulties  connected  with  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  chapters  of  Isaiah,  which  did  not  apply  to 
any  known  conqueror. 

Coupled  in  scriptural  and  monumental  story  are 


232  THE  BIBLE    VERIFIED. 

Sennacherib  and  Hezekiah.  The  sacred  record 
reads :  "  Hezekiah  king  of  Judah  sent  to  the  king 
of  Assyria  to  Lachish,  saying,  I  have  offended ; 
return  from  me :  that  which  thou  puttest  on  me 
will  I  bear."  That  the  Assyrian  monarch  was  at 
that  city  in  his  approach  to  Jerusalem  is  indicated 
by  a  sculptured  sceue  now  in  London,  with  the 
inscription,  "  Sennacherib,  the  king  of  multitudes, 
the  king  of  Assyria,  sat  on  an  upright  throne,  and 
the  spoil  of  the  city  of  Lachish  passed  before  him." 
So,  again,  the  inspired  penman  says  :  "  In  the  four- 
teenth year  of  King  Hezekiah  did  Sennacherib 
king  of  Assyria  come  up  against  all  the  fenced 
cities  of  Judah,  and  took  them."  On  winged  and 
human-headed  bulls,  which  we  have,  Sennacherib 
inscribed,  "As  for  Hezekiah  of  Judah,  who  had 
not  submitted  to  my  yoke,  forty-six  of  his  strong 
cities  ...  I  captured.  .  .  .  Hezekiah  himself 
I  shut  up  like  a  bird  in  a  cage  in  Jerusalem, 
his  royal  city."  The  Bible  also  says  of  this  As- 
syrian, "  When  he  was  come  into  the  house  of 
his  god,  they  that  came  forth  of  his  own  bowels 
slew  him  there  with  the  sword."  The  reason  for 
his  being  slain  by  his  elder  sons  seems  to  have  been 
because  he  favored  a  younger  brother  of  theirs  for 
his  successor ;  and  of  this  favoritism  there  is  a  cu- 
rious confirmation  in  a  preserved  tablet  whereon  is 
inscribed  Sennacherib's  will  bequeathing  to  Esar- 
haddon  "armlets  of  gold,  quantities  of  ivory,"  and 
there  follows   a   long   list   of  "beautiful   things." 


THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  MONUMENTS.     233 

Scripture  says  he  was  murdered  by  his  own  sons, 
and  a  monument  gives  us  the  probable  reason  in  a 
record  of  very  manifest  partiality  for  one  specially- 
named  child.  Thus  do  the  stones  cry  out  in  defence 
of  Biblical  history. 

When  the  royal  favorite  ascended  the  Assyrian 
throne  he  likewise  made  tributary  to  him  several 
kings,  among  whom  he  names  on  a  cylinder  "  Ma- 
nasseh  king  of  Judah."  This  accords  with  the 
sacred  record,  which  says  of  Esar-haddon  that  he 
"  took  Manasseh  in  chains,  and  bound  him  with 
fetters."  There  is  added,  however,  in  the  book  of 
Chronicles  a  statement  which  long  troubled  com- 
mentators— namely,  the  expression  "and  carried 
him  to  Babylon."  Why  should  it  not  have  been 
to  Nineveh,  which  was  the  Assyrian  capital  ? 
Here,  many  used  to  think,  is  an  inaccuracy  showing 
the  unhistorical  character  of  the  Chronicles.  It 
was  as  if  in  the  far  future  some  one  should  read  of 
the  present  that  Queen  Victoria  conquered  India 
and  brought  its  princes  to  Paris.  Such  seemed  to 
be  the  biblical  mistake.  But  now  the  monuments 
tell  us  that  Esar-haddon  repaired  Babylon  and  made 
it  one  of  his  seats  of  government,  so  that  we 
have  an  easy  explanation  of  the  scriptural  record, 
upon  a  fuller  knowledge  of  the  past.  One  igno- 
rant of  our  own  early  history,  if  he  should  read 
that  the  governor  of  Connecticut  once  conveyed  a 
prisoner  of  war  to  the  capital  at  Xew  Haven,  might 
suppose  the  historian  had  erred,  for  according  to 


234  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

the  present  fact  Hartford  is  the  capital  of  that  State. 
But  let  him  learn  a  little  more,  and  he  finds  that 
Connecticut  formerly  had  two  capitals,  Hartford 
and  New  Haven,  and  the  alleged  inaccuracy  be- 
comes a  subtle  proof  of  truthfulness.  The  stones 
in  these  later  times  have  cried  out  in  defence 
of  the  absolute  accuracy  of  the  divine  chronicler, 
who  had  written  that  Manasseh  was  carried  "to 
Babylon." 

The  glory  of  the  Assyrian  empire  culminated 
with  Assurbanipal,  who  collected  the  magnificent 
library  from  whose  pages,  written  with  iron  pen  in 
the  rock  for  ever,  we  have  been  largely  gleaning 
for  our  present  fund  of  information.  His  kingdom 
survived  him  only  a  short  time.  The  whole  mighty 
fabric  toppled  in  shapeless  ruins,  in  which  (606  or 
610  B.  C.)  was  involved  the  splendid  capital  Nine- 
veh, that  "  great  city r  wherein,  said  the  prophet 
Jonah,  were  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  persons  who  could  not  "  discern  between 
their  right  hand  and  their  left."  Its  destruction 
had  been  predicted  by  Nahum,  while  Zephaniah 
had  prophesied,  "  How  is  she  become  a  desolation, 
a  place  for  beasts  to  lie  down  in  !"  Never  was 
prediction  more  terribly  fulfilled,  for  the  very  site 
of  Nineveh  was  forgotten  till  it  was  revealed  by 
the  excavations  of  this  nineteenth  century.  God 
had  a  purpose  in  hiding  her  beneath  the  accumula- 
tions of  ages.  When  in  our  day  infidelity  has  be- 
come rampant,  when  the  Old   Testament  has  with 


THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  MONUMENTS.     235 

great  confidence  been  pronounced  a  mass  of  fables, 
the  very  stones  have  risen  from  the  ground  to  ver- 
ify in  baked  brick  and  tablet  and  rock  and  cylinder 
what  of  the  sacred  records  had  been  fiercely  assailed 
by  a  skeptical  criticism. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  MONUMENTS.— BABY- 
LONIA  AND  PALESTINE. 

"  If  these  shall  hold  their  peace,  the  stones  will  cry  out." — 
Luke  19  :  40. 

IN  the  continued  consideration  of  the  Bible  and 
the  monuments  we  pass  to  another  Oriental 
country. 

3.  Babylonia  next  claims  our  attention.  This 
was  an  older  empire  than  the  Assyrian,  but  it  had 
perished,  to  rise  again  from  the  ashes  of  its  younger 
competitor.  Excavations  at  Babylon  have  not  yet 
proceeded  so  far  as  at  Nineveh,  but  more  and  more 
of  its  stones  are  crying  out.  There  are  here  cuneiform 
inscriptions  evidently  referring  to  what  in  Scripture 
is  known  as  the  tower  of  Babel  with  its  confusion 
of  tongues.  We  can  read  in  wedge-shaped  letters 
of  a  "mound"  destroyed  in  a  night,  while  Anu 
"  confounded  great  and  small  on  the  mound  "  and 
"  made  strange  their  counsel." 

The  prophet  Habakkuk  had  said  of  Babylon, 
"  The  stone  shall  cry  out  of  the  wall,  and  the  beam 
out  of  the  timber  shall  answer  it;"  and  this  has 
come  to  pass  in  the  identification  of  the  resplendent 
palace  of  Nebuchadnezzar  with  the    modern   ruin 

236 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS.     237 

called  Ivasr,  wherein  almost  every  brick  is  inscribed 
with  that  celebrated  monarch's  name.  He  wanted 
to  crush  the  people  of  God,  but  if  he  had  known 
that  in  the  far  future  he  was  to  assist  in  the  estab- 
lishing of  their  sacred  writings,  he  might  well  have 
uttered  the  prayer  of  Macbeth,  when  before  the 
murder  of  Duncan  he,  according  to  our  great  Eng- 
lish dramatist,  thus  besought  the  earth : 

"  Hear  not  ray  steps,  which  way  they  walk,  for  fear 
The  very  stones  prate  of  my  whereabout." 

He  did  not  intend  to  confirm  Ezekiel  in  one  of  the 
latter's  allusions,  but  he  did  unconsciously.  The 
prophet  in  speaking  of  Damascus  had  associated 
the  city  "  with  the  wine  of  Helbon."  Singularly 
enough,  in  one  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  expeditions  to 
the  Mediterranean,  as  he  marched  from  Damascus 
toward  the  sea  along  the  gorge  of  the  Dog  River, 
he  wrote  on  the  face  of  a  cliff  an  inscription  which 
only  recently  was  discovered  under  a  mass  of 
shrubbery  and  maiden-hair  fern  ;  and  what  was  it 
that  he  wrote  with  iron  pen  in  the  rock  for  ever? 
Simply  a  list  of  the  wines  of  Lebanon,  among 
which  the  wine  of  Helbon  near  Damascus  is  prom- 
inent. Rock-inscription  of  Babylonian  monarch 
and  written  prophecy  of  inspired  penman  are  mu- 
tually corroborative. 

In  the  case  of  Cyrus,  too,  there  is  a  wonderful 
agreement  betweeu  the  Scriptures  and  the  monu- 
ments.    Among  the  late  discoveries  are  clay  docu- 


238  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

ments  which  revolutionize  previous  ideas  concerning 
this  ancient  ruler.  He  has  generally  been  supposed 
to  have  been  a  Persian  monotheist,  but  by  these 
contemporary  records  in  stone  he  appears  as  an 
Elaraite  polytheist,  and  Isaiah  is  thus  seen  to  have 
spoken  with  the  greatest  exactness  when  he  said  of 
the  coming  attack  upon  Babylon :  "  Go  up,  O 
Elam ;  besiege,  O  Media,"  wherein  Elam  has  been 
explained  to  mean  Persia.  No  such  wrong  expla- 
nation is  now  needed,  for  a  forced  harmony  is  no 
longer  necessary  in  the  interest  of  supposed  truth. 
Then  the  monumental  representation  of  Cyrus  as  a 
"  worshiper "  of  Merodach  and  other  gods  agrees 
better  with  Scripture  than  the  theory  which  many 
have  been  holding,  that  he  was  a  Zoroastrian  be- 
liever in  a  single  deity,  and  therefore  was  prepared 
to  sympathize  with  the  Jews  in  his  restoration  of 
them  to  their  native  land.  The  prophet  says  ex- 
plicitly, "  I  will  gird  thee,  though  thou  hast  not 
known  me ;"  and  of  course  he  had  not  known  Je- 
hovah when  he  tells  us  in  the  cylinder  of  his  own 
writing  how  he  worshiped  the  Babylonian  divini- 
ties. He  may  indeed  have  been  sympathetic  to- 
ward the  Hebrew  belief  in  one  God,  because  of  the 
knowledge  he  had  of  monotheism  through  Persia, 
where  he  informs  us  his  great-grandfather  had 
reigned.  It  is  possible  also,  as  Josephus  asserts, 
that  he  read  Isaiah's  prophecy  which  referred  to 
him  by  name,  and  that  he  became  a  believer  in  Je- 
hovah, but  certainly  this  was  not  true  at  first,  for 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONVMEXTS.      239 

God  is  represented  as  saying  "  I  have  snrnamed 
thee,  though  thou  hast  not  known  me."  He  may 
have  restored  the  Jews  to  Palestine  because  of 
his  political  sagacity.  He  may  have  seen  the  dan- 
ger of  keeping  a  disaffected  people  in  the  centre  of 
his  realm,  and  he  may  have  sought  their  friendship 
by  allowing  them  to  return  to  their  own  land,  and 
he  may  have  seen  the  practical  wisdom  of  buttress- 
ing his  empire  by  letting  them  as  friends  build  up 
their  own  institutions  on  the  Egyptian  frontier, 
rather  than  have  them  as  enemies  in  the  heart  of 
his  kingdom  to  poison  other  minds  with  rebellious 
feelings.  But  even  in  this  view  of  the  matter  God 
overruled  all  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  own 
divine  purpose  relative  to  the  chosen  people;  he 
made  use  of  an  unconscious  instrument,  as  Holy 
"Writ  declares. 

The  further  harmony  between  Isaiah's  prophecy 
and  the  cylinder  of  Cyrus  appears  when  in  the  for- 
mer we  read,  "  the  gates  shall  not  be  shut,"  point- 
ing to  a  peaceful  conquest  of  the  golden  city,  and 
when  in  the  latter  we  read,  "  I  entered  Babylon  in 
peace,"  "  without  fighting  or  battle."  Likewise,  the 
noble  character  ascribed  to  Cyrus  by  Xenophon  and 
Herodotus,  who  make  him  the  model  prince  of  an- 
tiquity, and  implied  in  the  scriptural  references,  "  I 
have  raised  him  up  in  righteousness,"  "  he  is  my 
shepherd,  and  shall  perform  all  my  pleasure," — 
this  characterization  from  profane  and  sacred 
sources  is  almost  a  repetition  of  what  the  cylinder 


240  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

says:  "He  governed  in  justice,"  "righteous  in  hand 
and  heart,"  "  the  nobles  and  priests  who  had  revolted 
kissed  his  feet,  they  rejoiced  in  his  sovereignty, 
their  faces  shone."  Then  as  to  the  biblical  state- 
meut  that  he  restored  the  Jews  to  the  Holy  Land, 
the  cylinder  implies  as  much  when  it  says  of  the 
various  provinces  whose  inhabitants  were  in  the 
Babylonian  captivity,  "  All  their  peoples  I  assem- 
bled, and  I  restored  their  lands."  Thus  do  the 
stones  cry  out  to  the  truthfulness  of  what  the  Bible 
says  concerning  Cyrus  the  Great. 

Of  Darius,  the  son  of  Hystaspes,  whether  he  be 
the  one  who  captured  Babylon  by  the  stratagem  of 
diverting  the  Euphrates  from  its  bed,  whether  he 
thus  took  the  city  by  surprise  or  not,  he  at  any 
rate  records  two  conquests  of  it  in  his  inscription 
on  the  Rock  of  Behistun,  and  one  of  these  may 
have  been  the  familiar  event  to  which  the  Greek 
writers  refer,  for  he  did  not  write  fully,  since  he 
himself  says,  "  Much  else  has  been  done  by  me 
which  is  not  written  in  this  inscription.  For  this 
reason  it  is  not  written,  that  it  may  not  seem  too 
much  to  him  who  hereafter  reads  this  inscription, 
that  he  may  not  disbelieve  what  I  have  done,  may 
not  consider  it  a  lie."  Very  good  advice  that  is 
from  the  Rock  of  Behistun  ;  it  is  the  stone  crying 
out  not  to  make  too  much  of  omissions,  and  to  re- 
member that  all  ancient  history  is  fragmentary. 

4.  Having  hastily  traversed  Egypt,  Assyria  and 
Babylonia,  we  come  lastly  to  Palestine,  and  partic- 


THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  MONUMENTS.     241 

ularly  to  the  results  of  recent  explorations  on  the 
temple-hill,  at  Jerusalem. 

The  book  of  the  Kings  tells  us  of  the  great  and 
hewed  stones  laid  in  the  temple  of  Solomon  with 
the  co-operation  of  Hiram  of  Tyre.  Eighty  feet 
below  the  present  surface  of  the  earth  has  been  un- 
covered massive  masonry  whereon  are  marks  which 
have  been  recognized  as  Phoenician  characters.  The 
corner-stone  itself  of  that  unequaled  house  of  God 
is  believed  to  have  been  found  in  a  granite  block 
fourteen  feet  long  and  imbedded  in  the  solid  rock, 
and  which  has  been  dressed  to  fit  its  present  place. 
Near  by  also,  in  a  hole  cut  in  the  native  rock,  has 
been  discovered  a  small  earthenware  jar  which 
may  have  contained  the  consecrating  oil  used  in  the 
joyful  and  solemn  service  of  dedication  three  thou- 
sand years  ago. 

The  Pool  of  Siloam  has  for  all  biblically  in- 
formed a  romantic  interest.  Solomon,  according  to 
the  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  says,  "  I  made  me  pools  of 
water."  We  know  that  this  king  of  splendid  name 
did  give  his  attention  to  a  proper  water-supply  for 
Jerusalem,  and  Siloam  in  its  initial  state  may  have 
beeu  clue  to  his  enterprise.  It  was  Hezekiah,  how- 
ever, who  really  brought  the  work  to  perfection, 
and  who  perhaps  is  to  be  credited  with  its  entire 
construction.  We  read  in  the  inspired  chronicle 
that  this  Jewish  king  at  the  threatening  approach 
of  Sennacherib  "took  counsel  with  his  princes  and 
his  mighty  men  to  stop  the  waters  of  the  fountains 

16 


242  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

which  were  without  the  city ;"  and  the  result  of  the 
conference  was  that  "they  stopped  all  the  fountains, 
and  the  brook  that  flowed  through  the  midst  of  the 
land,  saying,  Why  should  the  kings  of  Assyria 
come,  and  find  much  water?"  That  is,  the  purpose 
was  to  divert  the  water  which  was  without  to  some 
point  within  the  city.  This  seems  to  have  been 
done,  for  we  read  farther  in  the  Chronicles,  "  This 
same  Hezekiah  also  stopped  the  upper  spring  of  the 
waters  of  Gihon,  and  brought  them  straight  down 
on  the  west  side  of  the  city  of  David."  There  is 
at  present  only  one  perennial  spring  in  close  prox- 
imity to  Jerusalem,  and  that  is  the  Virgin's  Foun- 
tain. This  flows  through  a  tunnel  cut  in  the  rock 
and  under  the  hill  to  what  is  still  known  as  the 
Pool  of  Siloam.  Different  persons  have  gone  the 
entire  length  of  the  subterranean  channel,  which 
winds  along  its  underground  way  for  one-third  of  a 
mile.  Sometimes  one  can  stand  in  the  excavated 
canal ;  again  he  has  to  creep,  and  at  one  point  he  has 
to  crawl.  This  tunnel  is  believed  to  date  back  to 
Hezekiah,  if  not  to  Solomon.  The  Pool  of  Siloam 
was  thus  supplied  from  a  living  spring,  whose  wa- 
ters, Isaiah  says,  flowed  "softly."  The  receptacle 
which  caught  the  gurgling  stream  was  famous. 
Christ  called  attention  to  a  tower  of  Siloam  falling 
and  crushing  eighteen  persons.  He  directed  a 
blind  man  to  go  there  to  wash,  while  it  is  said  that 
the  pool  by  interpretation  meant  Sent,  and  the  wa- 
ters were  sent  there,  whereas  naturally  they  would 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS.      243 

have  flowed  off  clown  the  valley.  It  was  water 
from  Siloam,  borne  in  golden  vessels  to  the  temple 
by  a  triumphal  procession  on  the  great  day  of  the 
feast  of  tabernacles,  which  is  thought  by  some  to 
have  suggested  the  Lord's  words  when  he  "  stood 
and  cried,  saying,  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come 
unto  me,  and  drink."  Very  precious,  therefore, 
are  the  associations  of  Siloam.  An  oft-sung  hymn 
says, 

"  By  cool  Siloam's  shady  rill," 

and  a  modern  traveler  speaks  of  listening  to  the 
"  music  of  the  waters "  as  he  stood  in  the  under- 
ground channel  "  sheltered  from  the  fierce  rays  of 
the  midday  sun.7'  ' 

In  the  summer  of  1880  some  boys  were  making 
their  way  up  the  rock-cut  canal,  when  one  of  them 
slipped  and  fell.  Upon  rising  from  the  water  he 
noticed  what  seemed  to  be  letters  on  the  wall  of  the 
stone  passage.  He  reported  what  he  had  seen,  and 
a  careful  examination  by  experts  disclosed  an  an- 
cient inscription,  largely  under  water,  on  an  arti- 
ficial tablet.  The  form  of  letters  is  that  used  eisrht 
centuries  before  Christ,  and  the  opinion  of  scholars 
is  that  we  have  what  was  written  by  order  of  Hez- 
ekiah  at  the  completion  of  the  great  work.  And 
how  does  the  inscription  read  ? — "  Xow  this  is  the 
history  of  the  excavation.  While  the  excavators 
were  still  lifting  up  the  pick,  each  toward  his  neigh- 
bor, and  while  there  were  yet  three  cubits  to  (exca- 


244  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

vate,  there  was  heard)  the  voice  of  one  man  calling 
to  his  neighbor."  The  vivid  description  continues, 
that  when  "  the  excavators  had  struck  pick  against 
pick,  one  agaiust  the  other,  the  waters  flowed  from 
the  spring  to  the  pool." 

We  thus  learn  from  the  very  stones  all  about  the 
construction  of  the  tunnel,  which  is  seen  to  have 
been  begun  simultaneously  at  each  end,  with  the 
workmen  to  meet  in  the  middle ;  and  so  skillful  was 
mechanical  engineering  even  at  that  remote  time 
that  the  laborers,  notwithstanding  the  serpentine 
course  of  the  passage,  came  almost  face  to  face  at 
the  centre,  striking  pick  to  pick,  while  they  shouted 
to  each  other  through  the  thin  partition,  till  they  ac- 
tually met  with  an  enthusiasm  which  could  not  be 
repressed,  and  which  to-day,  after  the  lapse  of  more 
than  twenty-five  hundred  years,  becomes  almost 
vocal  through  the  rocky  inscription.  The  stone 
literally  cries  out,  and  confirms  what  the  chronicler 
had  said  of  Hezekiah,  and  what  the  book  of  the 
Kings  relates  regarding  him  :  aHe  made  the  pool, 
and  the  conduit,  and  brought  water  into  the  city." 

We  come  lastly  to  the  temple  of  Herod.  Its 
greatest  glory  arises  from  its  connection  with  Christ. 
Could  we  have  a  relic  from  that  sacred  building, 
which  the  Lord  repeatedly  entered,  and  which  his 
disciples  so  greatly  admired  when  he  prophesied 
that  one  stone  should  not  be  left  upon  another, 
we  might  consider  ourselves  supremely  favored. 
This  structure  was  also  closely  related  to  more  than 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS.      245 

one  event  in  the  lives  of  the  apostles.  There,  for 
instance,  is  that  stirring  scene  in  the  career  of  Paul 
when  he  was  thought  to  have  desecrated  the  edifice 
by  taking  with  him  a  Gentile  into  its  inner  pre- 
cincts. He  was  saved  from  an  enraged  Jewish  mob 
only  by  Roman  soldiers.  Why  were  the  excited 
people  "seeking  to  kill  him"?  The  narrative  in 
the  book  of  the  Acts  replies  :  "For  they  had  before 
seen  with  him  in  the  city  Trophimus  the  Ephesian, 
whom  they  supposed  that  Paul  had  brought  into 
the  temple."  Was  the  court  of  the  Israelites  thus 
jealously  guarded  against  all  aliens  from  their  com- 
monwealth ?  Josephus  answers  :  "  When  you  went 
through  these  first  cloisters  into  the  second  court 
of  the  temple,  there  was  a  partition  made  of  stone 
all  around,  whose  height  was  three  cubits  :  its  con- 
struction was  very  elegant ;  upon  it  stood  pillars  at 
equal  distances  from  one  another,  declaring  the  law 
of  purity,  some  in  Greek  and  some  in  Latin  letters, 
that  no  foreigner  should  go  within  that  sanctuary." 
The  Jewish  historian  also  represents  Titus  as  speak- 
ing of  "this  partition-wall  before  your  sanctuary," 
while  this  Roman  conqueror  of  the  holy  city  adds, 
"  Have  you  not  been  allowed  to  put  up  the  pillars 
thereto  belonging  at  due  distances,  and  on  it  to  en- 
grave in  Greek  and  in  your  own  letters  this  pro- 
hibition, that  no  foreigner  should  go  beyond  this 
wall?  Have  not  we  given  you  leave  to  kill  such 
as  go  beyond  it,  though  he  were  a  Roman  ?" 
Paul   must  have  been  familiar  with   that  divid- 


246  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

ing  wall,  and  he  would  have  been  able  to  read  the 
Greek  inscription  on  the  pillars,  for  it  was  on  this  oc- 
casion of  which  we  are  treating  that  the  chief  captain, 
on  hearing  his  request  for  permission  to  say  a  word? 
asked,  "  Dost  thou  know  Greek  ?"  He  had  supposed 
the  apostle  to  be  the  well-known  seditious  Egyptian, 
until  he  heard  in  Greek  the  apostolic  request  for  lib- 
erty to  speak  to  the  excited  throng.  So  that  Paul  un- 
derstood all  about  that  stone  wall  of  separation  be- 
tween Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  all  about  that  Greek 
inscription  on  the  surmounting  pillars.  And  when 
he  nearly  lost  his  life  because  he  was  supposed  to 
have  taken  Tropin mus  of  Ephesus  beyond  the 
plainly-indicated  dividing-line,  still  more  would 
he  have  occasion  to  remember  the  cause  of  all  his 
trouble.  Of  course  the  Ephesians  also  would  hear 
of  the  whole  matter  through  Trophimus,  who  was 
from  Ephesus.  In  view  of  all  this,  the  entire  au- 
thenticity, or  at  least  the  especial  pertinency,  of 
Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  is  shown  by  noth- 
ing more  than  by  that  single  expression  occurring 
in  this  very  letter — namely,  that  Christ  "  brake 
down  the  middle  wall  of  partition. " 

The  climax  of  this  striking  line  of  evidence  is 
yet  to  be  mentioned.  In  1871  the  excavations  at 
Jerusalem  revealed  a  stone  with  this  Greek  inscrip- 
tion :  "No  foreigner  to  proceed  within  the  partition 
wall  and  enclosure  around  the  sanctuary ;  whoever 
is  caught  in  the  same  will  on  that  account  be  liable 
to  incur  death."     This  is  reliably  pronounced  to  be 


THE  BIBLE  AND   THE  MONUMENTS.     247 

one  of  the  very  inscribed   pillars  which   Josephoa 

and  Tit ns  mention,  which  Christ  and  Paul  must 
have  often  read,  which  Trophimus  and  the  Ephe- 
sians  must  have  thought  of  when  they  received 
their  letter  from  the  chief  of  the  apostles  contain- 
ing a  reference  to  the  "middle  wall  of  partition." 
This  is  testimony  that  is  fairly  dramatic  in  its  cul- 
minating force.  It  is  the  crying  out  of  the  very 
stones,  which  have  actually  sent  forth  one  of  their 
number  from  the  rubbish  of  eighteen  centuries  to 
stand  up  and  talk  to  this  generation  in  the  Greek 
of  the  first  century. 

We  cannot  conclude  better  than  in  the  language 
of  an  accomplished  Oxford  professor  (Sayce),  who 
says :  "  The  same  spirit  of  skepticism  which  had 
rejected  the  early  legends  of  Greece  and  Rome  had 
laid  its  hands  also  on  the  Old  Testament,  and  had 
determined  that  the  sacred  histories  themselves  were 
but  a  collection  of  myths  and  fables.  But  suddenly, 
as  with  the  wand  of  a  magician,  the  ancient  Eastern 
world  has  been  reawakened  to  life  by  the  spade  of 
the  explorer  and  the  patient  skill  of  the  decipherer, 
and  we  now  find  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  mon- 
uments which  bear  the  names  or  recount  the  deeds 
of  the  heroes  of  Scripture.  One  by  one  these 
'stones  crying  out'  have  been  examined  or  more 
perfectly  explained,  while  others  of  equal  import- 
ance are  being  continually  added."  If,  then,  any 
have  been  inclined  to  give  up  God's  word  because 
of  the  confident  assaults  made  upon  it  by  an  unbe- 


248  THE  BIBLE   VERIFIED. 

lieving  criticism ;  if  their  faith  has  been  so  far 
weakened  that,  instead  of  being  positive  defenders 
of  the  Bible,  they  are  remaining  silent  because  they 
are  quietly  doubting  the  authority  and  infallibility 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  if  any  of  Christ's  disci- 
ples have  become  troubled  and  dumb  before  the 
boastful  skepticism  of  this  nineteenth  century, — let 
them  take  the  deserved  reproof  of  the  Master: 
"If  these  shall  hold  their  peace,  the  stones  will 
cry  out."  The  voices  of  the  stones  we  have  been 
hearing  in  the  testimony  of  the  monuments  in 
Egypt  and  Assyria,  in  Babylonia  and  Palestine, 
and  they  have  been  as  the  voices  of  "  many  waters," 
breaking  like  the  thunder  of  the  multitudinous 
ocean  upon  this  distant  century  at  the  "ends  of  the 
ages." 


APPENDIX. 


Note  1.— Page  24. 


As  bearing  on  the  Canon,  that  ancient  manual  or 
summary  of  Christian  truth,  "  The  Teaching  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles,"  discovered  in  manuscript  in  a  libra- 
ry of  Constantinople  in  1875  and  published  in  1883, 
and  assigned  to  the  close  of  the  first  century  or  to 
the  beginning  of  the  second, — this  venerable  docu- 
ment shows  familiarity  with  Matthew,  Luke,  and 
John  in  particular,  and  with  apostolic  doctrine  in  gen- 
eral. Then  Papias,  a  contemporary  of  Justin,  but 
older  than  he,  in  a  passage  preserved  by  Eusebius 
makes  specific  mention  of  the  Gospels  written  by 
Matthew  and  Mark. 

Note  2.— Page  33. 

With  regard  to  the  Vatican  Manuscript,  it  is  a  sat- 
isfaction to  add  that  whatever  embarrassing  restric- 
tions may  have  existed  heretofore,  scholars  now  are 
given  generous  access  to  the  manuscript,  Professor 
Schaif  (as  stated  by  him  in  a  letter  to  the  Kev.  Dr.  E. 
R.  Craven)  having  recently  been  permitted  to  exam- 
ine it  for  two  days  in  the  reading-room  of  the  Vatican 
Library. 

249 


250  APPENDIX. 

Note  3.— Page  37. 

Of  interest  in  connection  with  Aristotle's  lost  works 
was  the  announcement  (January,  1891)  of  another  great 
literary  discovery.  A  collection  of  papyrus  rolls  from 
an  Egyptian  source  having  come  into  the  possession  of 
the  British  Museum,  three  of  these  were  found  to  con- 
tain the  larger  portion  of  a  long-lost  and  valuable 
treatise  of  Aristotle  on  the  constitution  of  Athens,  a 
knowledge  of  whose  existence  was  retained  only  by 
some  preserved  fragments  and  by  references  to  it  in 
history.  It  is  a  Greek  manuscript,  assigned  to  the 
end  of  the  first  or  the  beginning  of  the  second  century. 
On  the  back  of  one  of  the  rolls  a  farm-overseer  had 
kept  his  accounts.  In  these  times  of  archaeological 
surprises  it  is  almost  useless  to  state  what  the  oldest 
manuscripts  are.  Among  recent  discoveries  are  the 
Petrie  papyri,  which  came  from  Kurob,  in  the  Fay- 
oum.  These  are  Greek  manuscripts,  assigned  to  the 
third  century  before  Christ  at  the  latest,  and  which 
include  portions  of  the  Phsedo  of  Plato. 

Note  4.— Page  39. 

A  few  chapters  of  the  Old  Testament  were  written 
in  Chaldee. 

Note  5. — Page  45. 
Different  editions  of  the  Great  Bible  varied  more  or 
less,  a  continual  revision  going  on.  The  Scripture  of 
the  Prayer-Book  up  to  1662  was  taken  from  the 
fourth  edition  of  this  version,  printed  in  1540,  with 
some  slight  emendations  subsequently  made,  earlier 
and  later.     And  when  the  Epistles  and  Gospels  and 


APPENDIX.  251 

Sentences  were  made  to  conform  to  the  Authorized 
Version  of  1611,  the  Psalter  and  Canticles  and  the 
other  biblical  portions  in  general  were  retained  in  the 
phraseology  of  the  Great  Bible,  which  was  felt  to  be 
more  euphonious,  and  which  also,  particularly  in  the 
Psalms,  had  been  learned  by  heart,  and  had  thus  be- 
come strongly  intrenched  in  the  affections  of  the 
people.  (For  this  information  the  author  is  indebted 
to  that  excellent  Episcopal  authority,  the  Rev.  Charles 
R.  Hale,  D.  D.,  LL.D.) 

Note  6.— Page  99. 

The  Nabonnedus  Cylinder  reads :  "  As  for  me,  Xa- 
bonnedus,  the  king  of  Babylon,  preserve  me  from  sin- 
ning against  thy  great  divinity,  and  grant  me  the  gift 
of  a  life  of  long  days ;  and  plant  in  the  heart  of  Bilu- 
sarra-utsur  (Belshazzar),  the  eldest  son,  the  offspring 
of  my  heart,  reverence  for  thy  great  divinity,  and 
never  may  he  incline  to  sin ;  with  fullness  of  life  may 
he  be  satisfied."  That  prayer  was  not  answered,  but 
the  clay  document  proves  the  existence  of  the  needed 
person  at  the  right  time. 

Note  7.— Page  106. 

The  identifications  of  the  signets  of  Haggai  and 
Jeremiah  need  not  seem  incredible,  since  an  undoubted 
present  possession  is  the  well-authenticated  signet-ring 
of  Cheops,  the  builder  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  who 
must  have  used  that  little  ornament,  that  was  also  use- 
ful, in  sealing  orders  given  to  the  one  hundred  thou- 
sand  men   who,   changed    every  three   months,  were 


252  APPENDIX. 

forced  to  labor  on  the  pyramidal  mound  for  years,  till 
the  most  prodigious  architectural  pile  ever  erected  by 
man  rose  to  the  height  of  nearly  five  hundred  feet  and 
covered  an  area  of  about  thirteen  acres,  long  centuries 
before  the  two  prophets  were  born. 

Note  8.— Page  113. 

Agassiz's  well-known  and  pronounced  opposition  to 
materialistic  evolution  may  make  it  seem  improper  to 
call  him  an  evolutionist  at  all,  and  yet  he  may  legiti- 
mately be  classed  with  those  who  recognize  a  certain 
development  in  nature,  while,  after  all,  the  supernatu- 
ral is  not  entirely  ruled  out. 

Note  9.— Page  156. 

Babylon  in  her  proud  boast  refers  primarily  to  that 
Accadian  "  mount "  of  the  "  north  "  which  was  to  the 
Oriental  mind  what  the  Olympian  seat  of  the  gods 
was  to  the  Greeks,  what  Mont  Blanc  is  to  the  Alps — 
the  highest  point  of  all.  Babylon  proposed  to  have  a 
structure  that  would  overtop  everything,  that  would 
pierce  the  sky,  that  would  rise  above  the  very  "  clouds" 
and  "  stars." 

Note  10.— Page  158. 

An  equally  impressive  lesson  can  be  drawn  if  the 
mound  of  ruins  going  under  the  name  of  Babil  be  (as 
many  claim)  the  true  site  of  the  ancient  temple  of 
Bel,  for  this  also  has  literally  "  crumbled  down." 


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